January 2026 - ntg-context

Why is this description environment not showing the correct title?
by Joel 13 Feb '26

13 Feb '26

\definedescription[latexdesc][headstyle=bold, style=normal, align=flushleft, alternative=hanging, width=broad, margin=1cm] \starttext \latexdesc{1540} some event happened \latexdesc{1541} some other event happened \latexdesc{1542} some event happened quite different \stoptext I found the above code (the first line) in the ConTeXt Wiki, as a way to create the equivalent of a desc environment from LaTeX. The items inside {} should be bold, then there is a gap before the next text. I am using this to display a simple timeline. Though the formatting looks perfect, very strangely when I compile it, it changes all of the dates to say "1540" (or whatever date was used first). Why is it showing the wrong title on the desc environment? --Joel

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next upload
by Hans Hagen 08 Feb '26

08 Feb '26

Hi, A next upload will have some 'changes' in the way we handle spacing in footnotes. This mostly affects those who have multiple classes of such notes. - we have spacebefore and spaceinbetween (global, between categories) - we also have that for the categories themselves - we have (normally) a rule with spacing after it - we have optional before/after hooks that in practice are not used Among the challenges we face(d) are: - robust detection of top/first spacing in a class per page - potential overflow of pages with excessive left-over notes - flushing pending notes with constraints disabled The previous mechanism was rather ok but there has been some question that made us (mikael and hans) look into it and we now hopefully handle some extreme conditions better. Some had to do with limitations / issues in the (also in traditional tex) engine: side effects of implementation, but no one ever complained so likely very rare or maybe just catched by rewriting; so a feature by now. Some can (and have to be) handled by the engine, some need the help from callbacks, which leaves 'sane usage' or (as Don mentions in Digital Typography) don't use that many notes. Of course Wolfgang has to tripple check all this; we also need to decide on a keyword for a new 'max number of notes' option. One change is that we now set "spacebefore" and "spaceinbetween" instead of "before". The upcoming upload will have a chapter beyond-insert.tex that those who are into this can process and consume. So, if you depend on this and don't want the risk, snapshot your current context installation. You have been warned. Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

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lang-imp-indic.lua
by hanneder＠staff.uni-marburg.de 07 Feb '26

07 Feb '26

Please add the line ["ऽ"] = "\'", to lang-imp-indic.lua. (there was not avagraha) Greetings Jürgen --- Prof. Dr. Juergen Hanneder Philipps-Universitaet Marburg FG Indologie u. Tibetologie Deutschhausstr.12 35032 Marburg Germany Tel. 0049-6421-28-24930 hanneder(a)staff.uni-marburg.de

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Font for logic gates
by Otared Kavian 03 Feb '26

03 Feb '26

Hi everyone, Has anyone on this list tried to use in ConTeXt the loggates font described on CTAN : https://ctan.org/pkg/loggates or any other font containing these symbols ? Indeed one could use images of the logic gates as described here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gate and insert them when necessary, but the result is not elegant. Thanks in advance for any hint: Otared

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\testpage peculiarity
by Jim 02 Feb '26

02 Feb '26

Hi, I am in the middle of trying to put a newsletter together. A heading occurred as the last line on a page, so I put \testpage[][1.5in] in front of it. All was good, the heading went onto the next page. Then, higher up in the page, I put \blank[2*line] to separate a couple of things. Curiously, the afore-mentioned heading now appears on the page. In desperation (publishing deadlines, you know) I can use brute force, but I hate doing that. I tried creating a minimal example, but (sort of unfortunately) that behaved as expected. Doing a binary search through my config may reveal what sin I have committed to cause this, but that will have to wait (publishing deadline). In the interim, does this situation tweak anyone's memory of seeing something like this before? If so, do you have any words of wisdom for me, so I can narrow down the hunt? Thanks. Jim

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Off-topic
by Jairo A. del Rio 01 Feb '26

01 Feb '26

Since Volodymyr Zelensky is mentioned in the Epstein files, along with former president Poroshenko and other politicians in the context of Euromaidan, I seriously doubt having a quote of him in the distribution is a choice that will age well. Just an opinion, though. Best regards https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01616473.pdf https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00784608.pdf and so on

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decreasing interlinear spacing in paragraph notes
by Pablo Rodriguez 31 Jan '26

31 Jan '26

Dear list, I have the following sample: \setuppapersize[A6] \startsetups[othernote] \setupinterlinespace[line=2ex] \stopsetups \definenote[othernote] [paragraph=yes, setups=othernote] \setupnotation[othernote] [alternative=serried, numbercommand=, width=broad,] \setupnote[footnote] [paragraph=yes] \setupnotation[footnote] [alternative=serried, numbercommand=, width=broad,] \starttext \dorecurse{25}{my sentence\footnote{footnote.}. } \page \dorecurse{25}{other sentence\othernote{other footnote.}. } \stoptext With current latest (2026.01.08 23:30), both LMTX and LuaTeX follow the `\setupinterlinespace` from the `othernote` setups when the value is greater than the body value, but not when its value is less than the body value. Am I missing something or have I hit a bug? Many thanks for your help Pablo

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Modes behave differently in LMTX vs. MkIV
by Marco Patzer 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Hi! I updated a project to LMTX and noticed an issue with modes. The modes don't quite work as they used to: \starttext\null \startmode [alpha] alpha \stopmode \startmode [alpha beta] alpha beta \stopmode \stoptext LMTX ---- context --mode='alpha' foo alpha alpha beta context --mode='alpha beta' foo <empty> MkIV ---- context --luatex --mode='alpha' foo alpha context --luatex --mode='alpha beta' foo alpha beta Is this a bug or a deliberate change? Marco version: 2026.01.08 23:30

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Text width and outer margins on doublesided
by Jeff Smith 27 Jan '26

27 Jan '26

Hi everyone! I would like to do something a bit funky involving a double sided page layout and an outer margin. My example below is a combination of my two recent questions. I have a two-column setup with an outer margin used for callouts on a double-sided layout. So on an odd page, that margin is on the right. On an even page, it is on the other side. What I would like to do is that for each chapter, there's an introduction text at the beginning, in a single column, that fills the whole width of the text area _including_ the margin space, which is relevant only for the two-column sections. Additionally, I want the chapter header to be centered on that width too, instead of the "regular" text width. Essentially, I want to ignore the margin space for the beginning of each chapter. I've tried using frames to do that, and toy around with offsets, but I can't make it work for chapters that begin on even pages. What could be the solution? Thank you! -- \showframe \setuppapersize[letter][letter] \setuplayout[topspace=0.5cm, bottomspace=0.5cm, cutspace=4cm, backspace=1cm, rightmargin=3cm, leftmargin=0cm, header=1cm, footer=0.5cm, height=middle, width=middle, margindistance=0.2cm, headerdistance=0.2cm, footerdistance=0.2cm] \setuppagenumbering[alternative=doublesided,location={footer}] \setuphead[chapter][page=no, align=center] \definemixedcolumns[sectioncolumns][n=2, align=right, balance=no] \starttext % Chapter begins on the right \startchapter \startsubject \dorecurse{1}{\input knuth\par} \stopsubject \startsubject \startsectioncolumns \dorecurse{3}{\input knuth\par} \stopsectioncolumns \stopsubject \stopchapter % Chapter begins on the left \startchapter \startsubject \dorecurse{1}{\input knuth\par} \stopsubject \startsubject \startsectioncolumns \dorecurse{3}{\input knuth\par} \stopsectioncolumns \stopsubject \stopchapter \stoptext -- JFS

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Problem with \hskip
by Fabrice Couvreur 25 Jan '26

25 Jan '26

Hi, The following code (thanks Wolfgang!) allows me to write a Python program while preserving indentation. However, this code stops working if I use \hskip starting from line P=0. Thank you for your help. Fabrice \defineframedtext [algorithmframe] [width=fit, foregroundstyle={\tt\switchtobodyfont[11pt]}, framecolor=, rulethickness=, location=middle, after=, before=, ] \startlinecorrection[blank] \startmidaligned \algorithmframe{ from math import comb \hskip 1ex def binomiale(i,n,p): \hskip 4ex return comb(n,i) * p**i * (1-p)**(n-i) \hskip 1ex def proba(k): P = 0 for i in range(0,k+1): P=P+binomiale(i,20,0.5) return P } \stopmidaligned \stoplinecorrection

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