October 2010 - ntg-context - NTG Mailing Lists

startdescription
by Patrick Gundlach 05 Oct '10

05 Oct '10

Hi, is \startdescription a valid command? I've found it in the reference section on the wiki (generated cont-en.xml) Or is it meant as a pattern/template for another command? Patrick

2 2

fitting page around content
by Michael Goerz 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Hi Everyone! is there a way to tell ConTeXt to fit the page tightly around the content? In LaTeX, I can do this with \usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview} The purpose is to create a standalone tikz figure of potentially unknown size. Thanks, Michael

2 2

Line height for smaller fonts. (Migrating from LaTeX to ConTeXt:) forcing new line and new page
by Procházka Lukáš Ing. - Pontex s. r. o. 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Hello, let's have the following example: --- \starttext \tt \input tufte \hairline \tfx \input tufte \hairline \tfxx \input tufte \stoptext --- When I look at the result, I see the smaller font the bigger "gap" between lines (or this may be taken as "line height" relative to letter height). As I would need to type many datafiles, it's important for me to reduce line height, even if readability of the text becomes a bit worse. Is it possible to achieve this anyhow? Another question: How to force new line and new page to start? - LaTeX provides \newline, \newpage\ linebreak and \pagebreak commands - see e.g. http://www.personal.ceu.hu/tex/breaking.htm. Does ConTeXt provide similar commands? Or how to achieve this? Regards, Lukas -- Ing. Lukáš Procházka [mailto:LPr@pontex.cz] Pontex s. r. o. [mailto:pontex@pontex.cz] [http://www.pontex.cz] Bezová 1658 147 14 Praha 4 Tel: +420 244 062 238 Fax: +420 244 461 038

3 2

present state of critical editions with ConTeXt MKIV ?
by Talal Al-Azem 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Dear all, My apologies for flooding the mailing list as I try to come up to speed quickly with some of the perhaps more arcane usages of ConTeXt over the weekend. I have come to understand that ConTeXt MKIV can indeed produce beautiful critical editions (including those of Arabic texts). I've spent some time scouring the mailing list and wiki with things related to critical editions and Arabic (from the early 2000's until now), including the developing CitTeXt project. However, I have some questions. From my (nascent) experiences and readings regarding critically editing texts, the following appear to be necessary tasks for any typesetting software used to produce critical texts [1] (I have placed an + next to those features which seem to already be implemented in MKIV, and a '?' next to those which I am unsure) : 1. Marginal line numbers + 2. Keying lemmas to linenumbers ? Footnote streams where the lemmas are referenced in connection with the line numbers (and thus not by puting a footnote reference number in the body of the text after the variant). I.e., functionality similar to ednotes or Ledmac in LaTeX. From what I've read, it seems this might remain the most problematic matter currently. 3. Formatting the lemma footnote streams in paragraph/block form OR in columnar form ? This mailing list provided direction to using \setupnote[footnote][n=x], where if x=0 makes the footnotes into a single paragraph, and if x=2 or more than 2 or more columns appear. I am unclear, due to my relative inexperience with ConTeXt, whether this is deemed robust enough as part of the solution of keying lemmas to linenumbers (#2 above). 4. Lemma abbreviations ? When the lemma is rather long, it should be displayed partially only preceding the note at the bottom of the page 5. Nested or overlapping lemmas ? 6. Cross references to lines ? 7. Line number switches + I.e. being able to turn line numbering on and off, restart, etc. 8. Multiple footnote streams + 9. Parallel typesetting ? I.e. It seems this was last recently discussed on this list in August 2010, and I assume it is naturally still in development, as these matters surely take time. Thus, the main issues seemingly remaining are related to lemmas. Issues number 2 to 5 are my main concern at the moment. Any advice on currently effecting these and other matters with a '?' after them (or being told that it is currently impossible) would be most appreciated. Alternatively, it would be nice just to know where things stand. Kind regards, Talal Al-Azem Oxford [1] Further discussion of these (and further) tasks can be quickly surveyed in Uwe Lück, "ednotes — critical edition typesetting with LATEX" (ednotugb.pdf, 2005) -- which discusses in section 2.1 the task(s) of digitally-produced critical editions.

2 3

rotated (landscape) pages in portrait document
by Mojca Miklavec 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Dear list, First one question: what is the MKIV-way of doing something like \startbuffer[a] % set text width for formula somehow \startformula\startalign \NC a \NC = b \NR \stopalign\stopformula \stopbuffer \framed{\rotate[rotation=90]{\externalfigure[\jobname-a.tmp]}} possibly adjusting width of formula to actual width (even if that is done manually)? And the other question: is there some quick trick that would "rotate the whole page" inside a document, so that the page would still be portrait, but text would be rotated with textwidth and textheight swapped, but with preserved main header (in reality I do not care about the header). I would like to put a narrow, but several lines long equation (\startalign) on left (bottom) and image on the right (top). I was playing with an approximation \rotate[rotation=90]{\vbox{ \startformula\startalign[n=6,align={middle,middle,right,middle,left,left}] \NC l \NC\hbox to 1em{}\NC m_l \NC\hbox to 1em{}\NC \text{orb.}\hbox to 2em{} \NC Y_{lm}\NR \NC 0 \NC\NC 0 \NC\NC s \NC \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\frac{ 1}{π}} \NR \NC 1 \NC\NC 0 \NC\NC p_z \NC \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\frac{ 3}{π}}\frac{z}{r} \NR \NC 1 \NC\NC \pm1 \NC\NC p_x \NC \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\frac{ 3}{π}}\frac{x}{r} \NR \NC \NC\NC \NC\NC p_y \NC \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\frac{ 3}{π}}\frac{y}{r} \NR \NC 2 \NC\NC 0 \NC\NC d_{z^2} \NC \frac{1}{4}\sqrt{\frac{ 5}{π}}\frac{3z^2-r^2}{r^2} \NR \NC 2 \NC\NC \pm1 \NC\NC d_{xz} \NC \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\frac{15}{π}}\frac{xz}{r^2} \NR \NC \NC\NC \NC\NC d_{yz} \NC \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\frac{15}{π}}\frac{yz}{r^2} \NR \NC 2 \NC\NC \pm2 \NC\NC d_{xy} \NC \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\frac{15}{π}}\frac{xy}{r^2} \NR \NC \NC\NC \NC\NC d_{x^2-y^2} \NC \frac{1}{4}\sqrt{\frac{15}{π}}\frac{x^2-y^2}{r^2} \NR \stopalign\stopformula}} % and then externalfigure on the right ... but the formula takes exactly \textwidth space, I didn't manage to convince it to consume less space (I could probably change textwidth locally). I know for workarounds (typesetting a different document for example and then include the page), but I really wonder if switching orientation just for a page (to typeset a table for example) is doable in some elegant way. This is all low priority though. Thanks a lot, Mojca

3 5

MPenvironment
by Patrick Gundlach 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Hi, I would like to get the Metapost "Abcd" to be bigger then the TeX "Abcd" (for all Metapost graphics). I thought that the command is \startMPenvironment .. \stopMPenvironment !?!? -------------------------------------------- \startMPenvironment \switchtobodyfont[16pt] \stopMPenvironment \starttext Abcd \startMPcode label.lrt(textext("Abcd"), (0cm,0.5cm)); \stopMPcode \stoptext -------------------------------------------- Patrick

2 1

Verbatim text loaded from a file?
by Procházka Lukáš Ing. - Pontex s. r. o. 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Hello, I'd need to show contents of a (text) file like verbatim text (with a monospace font). So to do something being described at http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Verbatim_text using \startcode SOME TEXT \stop code, but the difference is that I don't need to write SOME TEXT manually but I need to load it from a (text) file. Moreover, I'd need to have the following options: - To alter the font used for numbering lines, so that it would be smaller than the normal text. - To specify number of the first and/or last line to be printed. - The input file may contain the end-of-page character, \0C. So I'd need this char - to be ignored - and/or to force printing from a new page. Is there a ConTeXt command which would provide all above? (NB: When I worked with LaTeX, these features were mostly provided by \VerbatimInput command from "fancyvrb" package.) Kind regards, Lukáš -- Ing. Lukáš Procházka [mailto:LPr@pontex.cz] Pontex s. r. o. [mailto:pontex@pontex.cz] [http://www.pontex.cz] Bezová 1658 147 14 Praha 4 Tel: +420 244 062 238 Fax: +420 244 461 038

2 4

Re: [NTG-context] placing a paragraph with non-standard interlinear spacing onto the grid
by Talal Al-Azem 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Dear all, By way of further definition and clarification of the issue: back in the world of LaTeX, I was kindly given the following code on CTT by Donald Arseneau to produce the desired effect. Mind you, it was only meant to work with a paragraph if the entire paragraph was on one page; it wouldn't work if split across pages: %%% Donald Arseneau’s Gridblock Environment %%% % For placing paragraphs into a box, and that box then % being placed on a “grid” of the baselineskip. This ensures % that following paragraphs are also on the grid. \makeatletter \@ifundefined{@tempdimc}{\newdimen\@tempdimc}{} \newenvironment{gridblock}{\par \setbox\@tempboxa\vtop\bgroup }{\par\egroup % measurements of top \@tempdima=\ht\@tempboxa \@tempdimc=\dp\@tempboxa \ifdim\@tempdima>\ht\strutbox \advance\@tempdimc\@tempdima \@tempdima=\ht\strutbox \advance\@tempdimc-\@tempdima \fi % measurements of bottom \setbox\@tempboxa\vbox{\unvbox\@tempboxa}% \ifdim\dp\@tempboxa>\dp\strutbox \@tempdimb=\dp\strutbox \else \@tempdimb=\dp\@tempboxa \fi \advance\@tempdimc-\@tempdimb \@tempcnta=\@tempdimc \divide\@tempcnta\baselineskip \advance\@tempdimc -\@tempcnta\baselineskip \ifdim\@tempdimc >2\vfuzz \advance\@tempdimc-\baselineskip \fi \divide\@tempdimc\tw@ \vbox to\@tempdima{}% \nobreak \nointerlineskip \kern-\@tempdima \kern-\@tempdimc \nobreak \box\@tempboxa \nobreak \nointerlineskip \kern-\@tempdimb \kern-\@tempdimc \nobreak \hbox{\vrule height \z@ width \z@ depth \@tempdimb}% } \makeatother Seeing how systematised ConTeXt is, I'm assuming something much simpler could probably be used to achieve the same effect? Kind regards, Talal On 3 Oct 2010, at 20:10, Talal Al-Azem wrote: > By way of further definition and clarification of the issue: back in the world of LaTeX, I was kindly given the following code on CTT by Donald Arseneau to produce the desired effect. Mind you, it was only meant to work with a paragraph if the entire paragraph was on one page; it wouldn't work if split across pages: > > %%% Donald Arseneau’s Gridblock Environment %%% > % For placing paragraphs into a box, and that box then > % being placed on a “grid” of the baselineskip. This ensures > % that following paragraphs are also on the grid. > \makeatletter > \@ifundefined{@tempdimc}{\newdimen\@tempdimc}{} > \newenvironment{gridblock}{\par > \setbox\@tempboxa\vtop\bgroup > }{\par\egroup > % measurements of top > \@tempdima=\ht\@tempboxa > \@tempdimc=\dp\@tempboxa > \ifdim\@tempdima>\ht\strutbox > \advance\@tempdimc\@tempdima > \@tempdima=\ht\strutbox > \advance\@tempdimc-\@tempdima > \fi > % measurements of bottom > \setbox\@tempboxa\vbox{\unvbox\@tempboxa}% > \ifdim\dp\@tempboxa>\dp\strutbox > \@tempdimb=\dp\strutbox > \else > \@tempdimb=\dp\@tempboxa > \fi > \advance\@tempdimc-\@tempdimb > \@tempcnta=\@tempdimc > \divide\@tempcnta\baselineskip > \advance\@tempdimc -\@tempcnta\baselineskip > \ifdim\@tempdimc >2\vfuzz \advance\@tempdimc-\baselineskip \fi > \divide\@tempdimc\tw@ > \vbox to\@tempdima{}% > \nobreak \nointerlineskip \kern-\@tempdima \kern-\@tempdimc \nobreak > \box\@tempboxa > \nobreak \nointerlineskip \kern-\@tempdimb \kern-\@tempdimc \nobreak > \hbox{\vrule height \z@ width \z@ depth \@tempdimb}% > } > \makeatother > > > Seeing how systematised ConTeXt is, I'm assuming something much simpler could probably be used to achieve the same effect? > > Kind regards, > Talal > > > On 2 Oct 2010, at 23:23, Talal Al-Azem wrote: > >> Dear all, >> >> This is important for anyone working with mixed language (font) texts. In my example, the overall document is Latin-based (e.g. English), with a paragraph of Arabic text; I want this Arabic paragraph as a whole to fit onto the grid (though obviously the individual Arabic lines of the paragraph would not). >> >> Currently, when I typeset an English paragraph, followed by an Arabic paragraph, followed by an English paragraph, the second English paragraph is no longer on the grid, having been throw off by the Arabic one. I'm looking for some way to automatically calculate and fill in the vspace needed for this. >> >> This is not the same as the issue of an Arabic word or phrase (or mathematic formula) being typeset in the midst of Latin text, as discussed http://www.mail-archive.com/ntg-context@ntg.nl/msg46163.html. Having read a few other matters on the mailing list (largely involving Idris and Hans), I'm sure it's possible, but I can't figure it out. >> >> Any help would be most appreciated. >> >> Kind regards, >> Talal >

2 5

TeXexec MkII, ConTeXt MkIV
by Tom Maynard 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Hello, I have pretty recent installations of TeXLive 2010 (for Cygwin) and ConTeXt Minimals (for Windows). In both installations, running TeXexec reports it is ConTeXt MkII ... but running ConTeXt directly reports itself as MkIV. I would like to synchronize TeXexec and MkIV ... as MkIV ... how is this done -- for each installation? Thanks for your help, Tom.

5 8

Updating ConTeXt using TeX Live 2010 (Linux)
by Daniel Grycman 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Hello list, after updating ConText to "beta" I get the following error message. ../mtx-context.lua:669: attempt to call field 'locateformat' (a nil value) Any ideas? Daniel

3 6