- ntg-context - NTG Mailing Lists

Bug report, \frac as redefined in m-newmat.tex
by Brooks Moses 04 Aug '04

04 Aug '04

The following simple file works fine if I comment out the \usemodule[newmat] line, but crashes if I put it in. \usemodule[newmat] \starttext \placeformula \startformula \eqalign{\frac{1}{2} \cr} \stopformula \stoptext - Brooks

3 5

Re: [NTG-context] Re: Best source of ConTeXt documentation?
by Paulo Ney de Souza 03 Aug '04

03 Aug '04

Patrick, Maybe we should move this discussion off the list to not bother others that may not be so interested in it. What I am trying to say (answering your question) is that learning by example is natural to human behaviour and extremely efficient. If you attend any of my classes here in Berkeley you will see examples from begining to the end, no matter what the subject is: math or programming. Even with learned programmers, examples do work well, I took, for example (no pun intended) an MSDN CD for C++ I have here by my side, 80% os the space in the disk is taken by examples, the rest is shared between the software, SDK, and manuals ... You promptly assumed that the guy wanted to copy the examples at hand. I don't think that this is right! He may indeed end up copying it, but you can't assume it. Paulo Ney >From ntg-context-bounces(a)ntg.nl Mon Aug 2 23:40:12 2004 >From: "Patrick Gundlach" <patrick(a)gundla.ch> >To: ntg-context(a)ntg.nl >Subject: [NTG-context] Re: Best source of ConTeXt documentation? > >Hello Paulo, > >> Everyone learns a language by example, if you try to teach one you >> will see, even Patrick, when he was a baby learned his first language >> by example (real language), it is only natural, it is only human. To >> argue the contrary is just lack of experience in teaching. > >Right, but what do you want to say? Typography and design is not a >matter of learning a language. > >Patrick >-- >ConTeXt wiki: http://contextgarden.net >texshow-web: http://texshow.contextgarden.net >List archive: http://archive.contextgarden.net >_______________________________________________ >ntg-context mailing list >ntg-context(a)ntg.nl >http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context >

2 1

Metapost variable problem
by Michal Kvasnicka 03 Aug '04

03 Aug '04

Good afternoon. I am sorry that I bother you with this offtopic but I don't know where else I can ask. I want to prepare a better interface for my metapost macros. I want to use the record-like variables to store "object" information. But I don't know how to copy such records. More precisely, let's suppose I have string a.type; a.type:="ecicsqrt"; string a.name; a.name:="indifference curve number 1"; string a.A; a.A:="1"; string a.B; a.B:="1"; ... And I want to copy it to a record b. But b:=a; doesn't work (now b is equal to some unknown token a). Is there some simple way to do it, or have I to copy it manually like this: string b.type; b.type:=a.type; ... Many thanks for your help. With wishes of nice summer Michal Kvasnicka

2 1

Problem with TeXexec
by Michal Kvasnicka 03 Aug '04

03 Aug '04

Good afternoon. I have just installed a new Linux system (SuSE 9.1 with teTeX) and the new ConTeXt (texexec version 4.3) -- in the same way as older one. But it doesn't work. It writes a following error message: ... sh: line1: cont-en: command not found ... This is pdfetex... ... ** ! End of file on the terminal ... why? I do wrong? How can I correct it? I tried to link cont-en to pdfetex, but I've still got the second error message. Moreover, the system tried to make the format file. Many thanks for your help. Michal Kvasnicka

3 3

Re: [NTG-context] Best source of ConTeXt documentation?
by Paulo Ney de Souza 03 Aug '04

03 Aug '04

Everyone learns a language by example, if you try to teach one you will see, even Patrick, when he was a baby learned his first language by example (real language), it is only natural, it is only human. To argue the contrary is just lack of experience in teaching. Paulo Ney >From ntg-context-bounces(a)ntg.nl Mon Aug 2 20:05:20 2004 >From: skhilji(a)tampabay.rr.com >Subject: Re: [NTG-context] Best source of ConTeXt documentation? >To: ntg-context(a)ntg.nl > >Adding to this thread (I don't mean a reply to Paulo, but rather a reply to what Hans was saying earlier)...The problem with "normal users" cooking up new styles is the lack of artistic abilities in some people (like me). One can, obviously go thru the manual cover the cover, but if one does not have creative thinking, then creating professional looking styles would be hard. That is why, users like me really do not care if our documents look like everybody else's (just as long as they look professional). > >Its kind of like learning Photoshop and knowing what each toolbar button does....but not knowing how to mix all the available tools create a professional looking graphic. > >And of course, once we learn the tool, then making small changes here and there to make it look slightly different is no big deal. > >Salman > >_______________________________________________ >ntg-context mailing list >ntg-context(a)ntg.nl >http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context >

4 3

Re: [NTG-context] Best source of ConTeXt documentation?
by skhilji＠tampabay.rr.com 03 Aug '04

03 Aug '04

Adding to this thread (I don't mean a reply to Paulo, but rather a reply to what Hans was saying earlier)...The problem with "normal users" cooking up new styles is the lack of artistic abilities in some people (like me). One can, obviously go thru the manual cover the cover, but if one does not have creative thinking, then creating professional looking styles would be hard. That is why, users like me really do not care if our documents look like everybody else's (just as long as they look professional). Its kind of like learning Photoshop and knowing what each toolbar button does....but not knowing how to mix all the available tools create a professional looking graphic. And of course, once we learn the tool, then making small changes here and there to make it look slightly different is no big deal. Salman

3 2

Re: [NTG-context] Re: Best source of ConTeXt documentation?
by Paulo Ney de Souza 03 Aug '04

03 Aug '04

>From ntg-context-bounces(a)ntg.nl Mon Aug 2 08:46:53 2004 >From: "Patrick Gundlach" <patrick(a)gundla.ch> >To: ntg-context(a)ntg.nl >Subject: [NTG-context] Re: Best source of ConTeXt documentation? > >Oh come on, this is completely crap. The people at PRAGMA (i.e. Hans) >share ConTeXt, wich is the holy grail that PRAGMA is based on >(besides the knowledge). It is such a generous gift to the community. >Please think about if you write stuff like that. I realize better that you do Hans contibutions to the Open Source community and I never complained about the sharing of ConTeXt, which is indeed the best typesetting system I have seen. You are taking my comment into a completely different context, pun not intended! >You are right, that not all (only few) manuals are available in .tex >format. See pdftex manual and the magazines. Putting source >code online needs time, a lot of time. Source code needs to get >documented. And I don't know Hans very well, but I'd guess that his >day only has 24h. > >There are already some styles in the ConTeXt wiki. And there are >styles that come with the distribution. The discussion is not about styles, it is about examples and how-to. >Why reverse-engineer? Just cook up the style you want. If you have >questions doing this, ask on the ConTeXt list. If you are ready, put >the style onto the Wiki. The styles at pragma are very good, but >definitely not the only way to go. Making a good style is not >copy/paste. It is a matter of experience. Experience is something you >have to gain yourself. We are not talking about experience and or copy/paste, if you are assuming that I don't have the experience or that the guy that posted the initial message wants to copy and paste, again you are on the wrong track. >And yes, it is time for us to put examples online. But the ConTeXt >community is still rather small. So there won't be many results in a >short time. I certainly will welcome the day we have a minimal how-to posted in there. >You can do the first step. Go to the wiki, edit a page that states >your questions regarding style development. Put a table of contents >or something similar there, which steps you would like to see, which >things you would like to have explained and so on. After that "we" >(the more experienced ConTeXt users) can fill in the gaps. And >finally we all have a small manual on style design. This is much >better than being so aggressive on the unwillingness to share source. > >Patrick I'll give it a try, the wiki is certainly the way to go ... Paulo Ney

2 1

PPCHTeX broken
by Peter Münster 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

Hello, PPCHTeX seems to be broken in the latest ConTeXt beta version. Here an example (copied from the manual): \usemodule[pictex,chemic] \starttext \startchemical[scale=small,width=6000,height=6000,frame=on] \chemical[SIX,SB2356,DB14,Z2346,SR36,RZ36] [C,N,C,C,H,H_2] \chemical[PB:Z1,ONE,Z0,DIR8,Z0,SB24,DB7,Z27,PE] [C,C,CH_3,O] \chemical[PB:Z5,ONE,Z0,DIR6,Z0,SB24,DB7,Z47,PE] [C,C,H_3C,O] \chemical[SR24,RZ24] [CH_3,H_3C] \stopchemical \stoptext log-file and dvi-file are attached. Greetings, Peter -- http://pmrb.free.fr/contact/ _____________________________________ FilmSearch engine: http://f-s.sf.net/

3 3

Understanding registers command
by Salman Khilji 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

From the BM, I copied the following and created a file named junk.tex. \starttext \defineregister[street][streets] \street{Ridderstraat} \placestreets \stoptext However, texexec gives me the following: ! Undefined control sequence. <recently read> \placestreets l.4 \placestreets ?

4 3

Collecting command arguments in a startstop environment
by Brooks Moses 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

There's a nice little problem that arises in LaTeX, of wanting to write a bit of code like the following, to define an environment that passes the contents of the environment to a command as an argument: \newcommand{\foo}[1]{...} \newenvironment{fooenv}{% \foo\bgroup }{% \egroup } There's even a nice FAQ entry about this. [1] As it turns out, the amsmath package defines a handy \collect@body command that handles collecting the environment body to pass it to a command. Anyhow, I'm finding myself wanting to do this in ConTeXt, with of course replacing \newenvironment with \definestartstop. Is there by any chance a built-in ConTeXt macro that can do this? Or even things that would make a decent foundation for building such a thing? Thanks much, - Brooks [1] http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=cmdasenv

3 4

Some proposed improvements for t-amsl.tex.
by Brooks Moses 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

Giuseppe and ConTeXt list members - Having figured out how to use \grabuntil (see my previous messages to this list), I've realized that it's really an inconvenient solution in some cases, because it's searching for a literal bit of text rather than an end to the appropriate grouping level. (Apparently there isn't a way to do the latter in TeX, given that AMSmath's \collect@body also searches for literal text.) This means that, if I write a "LaTeX compatibility function" that does things like define \end{myenvironment} to expand to \stopmyenvironment, my redefinition will not work on any environments using \grabuntil. This inconvenience happens to show up in t-amsl.tex's "align" and "gather" implementations, which is one place where I really need that compatibility function. However, it turns out that there's a simple way to rewrite the implementation so to avoid needing \grabuntil. Mostly, this works on the fact that the definition of Plain TeX's \eqalign function can be split apart into a before and after part, as follows: \def\starteqalign{\null\,\vcenter\bgroup \openup\jot {\mathsurround=0pt}% \ialign\bgroup \strut\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$&$\displaystyle{{}##}$\hfil \crcr} \def\stopeqalign{\crcr\egroup\egroup\,} (This, aside from the \bgroup's and \egroup's, is copied directly from Appendix B of The TeXbook.) Thus, we could expand the instances of \eqalign in the \startalign and \startgather definitions, shuffle things around appropriately, and obtain the following: \def\startalign{\startformula \let\\\cr \starteqalign} \def\stopalign{\crcr\stopeqalign\stopformula} \def\startgather{\startformula \def\\{\cr&}% \starteqalign&} \def\stopgather{\crcr\stopeqalign\stopformula} This exactly duplicates the existing functionality in the t-amsl.tex package. However, that functionality could be improved to be a better match to what's provided in amsmath.tex; in particular, align should accept multiple columns of equations, and gather should center its lines. Thus, I propose that the following redefinitions be included in t-amsl: \def\startalign{\startformula \let\\\cr \null\vcenter\bgroup \openup\jot {\mathsurround=0pt}% \everycr={}\tabskip=4pt plus1fil \halign to \displaywidth\bgroup \strut\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$% \tabskip=0pt &$\displaystyle{{}##}$\hfil% \tabskip=4pt plus1fil &&\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$% \tabskip=0pt &$\displaystyle{{}##}$\hfil% \tabskip=4pt plus1fil \crcr} \def\stopalign{\crcr\crcr\egroup\egroup\stopformula} \def\startgather{\startformula \let\\\cr \null\,\vcenter\bgroup \openup\jot {\mathsurround=0pt}% \ialign\bgroup \strut\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$\hfil \crcr} \def\stopgather{\crcr\crcr\egroup\egroup\,\stopformula} Also, a similar method can be used to replicate the split environment (which, unlike the above, should go inside an explicit \startformula and \stopformula pair). I propose the following definition be added as well: \def\startsplit{% \let\\\cr \null\,\vcenter\bgroup \openup\jot {\mathsurround=0pt}% \ialign\bgroup \strut\hfil$\displaystyle{##}$&$\displaystyle{{}##}$\hfil \crcr} \def\stopsplit{\crcr\egroup\egroup\,} This still doesn't address the fact that the lines in the align and gather environments are not given individual equation numbers as they should be, but I think that is a project for another day. - Brooks P.S. A question: is it intentional that the array environment in t-amsl produces notably different spacing than LaTeX's array environment?

1 0

Re: [NTG-context] Best source of ConTeXt documentation?
by Paulo Ney de Souza 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

>From ntg-context-bounces(a)ntg.nl Mon Aug 2 09:08:22 2004 >From: Hans Hagen <pragma(a)wxs.nl> >To: mailing list for ConTeXt users <ntg-context(a)ntg.nl> >Subject: Re: [NTG-context] Best source of ConTeXt documentation? >Cc: > >- it would take a lot of effort to keep such a source code repository up >to date and in sync (else too many questions) with the pdf repositoty If we are talking about examples, ones does not need to have the latest manual and the latest source in sync. Just one copy of the manual (that will eventually go old) and one copy of the source. For example, the Calculator, mixing TeX and JavaScript http://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/calculat.pdf has NOT changed in many years now, so there is no problem maitaining the PDF and the source in sync... >- we only publish documented sources That is an important point ... and the only one I can give credit to, but I still think the abundance of examples, even without documentation, is better than the short of examples. >- i want to stimulate users to writ etheir own styles not to mimick >existing ones (i.e. avoid the 'all tex files look the same' problem) .... >so ... there are no hidden tricks (unless it would bother/confuse >users); and .. things like cover designs i wanna keep for myself if only >to avoid cutting and pasting >Hans Hans: Imitation is indeed the truest form of flattery! Paulo Ney

1 0

Re: [NTG-context] Best source of ConTeXt documentation?
by Paulo Ney de Souza 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

This is one of the sore points of ConTeXt and of the development effort. People at Pragma are willing to show off but not willing to share code and teach by example... contrary to most opensource projects I have seen. There is another gallery of examples without source for some pdfTeX material at: http://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/index.html and as you can see there is a large intersection with the some of the familiar developers at Pragma. Maybe it is time for us to start an group to reverse-engineer some of these files and post them into a public archive. Paulo Ney de Souza >From ntg-context-bounces(a)ntg.nl Sun Aug 1 19:55:39 2004 >From: skhilji(a)tampabay.rr.com >Subject: Re: [NTG-context] Best source of ConTeXt documentation? >To: ntg-context(a)ntg.nl > >I'd like to see the sources of all the PDF files available at pragma-ade. Its much easier to look at examples and learn from it than to ask for complete documentation. > >Salman > > >_______________________________________________ >ntg-context mailing list >ntg-context(a)ntg.nl >http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context >

3 2

Re: [NTG-context] metaobj and transparent colors with \MPcolor
by Eckhart Guthöhrlein 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

On Mon, Aug 02, 2004 at 01:20:27PM +0200, Vit Zyka wrote: > >>input metaobj; > >>beginfig(1) > >> fill fullcircle scaled 1cm withcolor red; > >> color t; t:=(1,1,0); > >> %setObjectDefaultOption("Box")("fillcolor")(t); > >> newBox.test(""); > >> Obj(test).c=origin; > >> drawObj(test); > >>endfig; > >> > >>end. > > > >Your color is not transparent, so it will work as expected: no white > >box. > > ??? > > The example demonstrated that it *IS* drawn white box in the background > of every metaobj object. Exactly as you mentioned. Yes of course. Sorry. > But I had a second look into mpobj.mp and probably find out the white > box tiger. Comment line 750: > unfill BpathObj(n); > I am sure this hack will cause some unpleasant side-effects (e.g. with > shaded boxes) but in some limited situations... Indeed, the hack works for me. Thank you very much for your time and effort! -- Eckhart

1 0

[Fwd: Re: [NTG-context] metaobj and transparent colors with \MPcolor]
by Vit Zyka 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

>>input metaobj; >>beginfig(1) >> fill fullcircle scaled 1cm withcolor red; >> color t; t:=(1,1,0); >> %setObjectDefaultOption("Box")("fillcolor")(t); >> newBox.test(""); >> Obj(test).c=origin; >> drawObj(test); >>endfig; >> >>end. > > Your color is not transparent, so it will work as expected: no white > box. ??? The example demonstrated that it *IS* drawn white box in the background of every metaobj object. Exactly as you mentioned. But I had a second look into mpobj.mp and probably find out the white box tiger. Comment line 750: unfill BpathObj(n); I am sure this hack will cause some unpleasant side-effects (e.g. with shaded boxes) but in some limited situations... Vit Zyka

1 0

Re: [NTG-context] metaobj and transparent colors with \MPcolor
by Eckhart Guthöhrlein 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

On Fri, Jul 30, 2004 at 12:08:33PM +0200, Vit Zyka wrote: > >Here is my current file, which just gives a white background in the box. > > > >\setupcolors[state=start] > >\setupbackgrounds[page][background=color,backgroundcolor=red] > >\definecolor[Transparent][r=0,g=1,b=1,t=0,a=normal] > >\startreusableMPgraphic{test} > > input metaobj; > > color t; t:=\MPcolor{Transparent}; > > setObjectDefaultOption("Box")("fillcolor")(t); > > newBox.test(btex Transparent? etex) "filled(true)"; > > Obj(test).c=origin; > > drawObj(test); > >\stopreusableMPgraphic > >\starttext > > \reuseMPgraphic{test} > >\stoptext > > Sorry I still do not see your white box. Perhaps something is corrupted > in my context installation. > > I had a quick look into mpobj source and I tried to remove default white > background, but I was not successful. Me either. > Vit Zyka > > P.S. I played with raw MP code: > > input metaobj; > beginfig(1) > fill fullcircle scaled 1cm withcolor red; > color t; t:=(1,1,0); > %setObjectDefaultOption("Box")("fillcolor")(t); > newBox.test(""); > Obj(test).c=origin; > drawObj(test); > endfig; > > end. Your color is not transparent, so it will work as expected: no white box. -- Eckhart

1 0

Re: [NTG-context] Best source of ConTeXt documentation?
by skhilji＠tampabay.rr.com 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

I'd like to see the sources of all the PDF files available at pragma-ade. Its much easier to look at examples and learn from it than to ask for complete documentation. Salman

1 0

Best source of ConTeXt documentation?
by Brooks Moses 02 Aug '04

02 Aug '04

In my efforts to learn ConTeXt, I'm continually getting stuck by a lack of having complete documentation. For example, consider the \definestartstop command, which I was recently looking at. * In the cont-enp.pdf manual, it's not mentioned. * In the mp-cp-en.pdf manual, there's an example of it, but it's not really very clear what the difference is between what the "commands=" and "before=" options do. In addition, there's no indication whether these are all the possible options or not, or whether there's any way to define a start/stop pair that takes an argument. * In the source, I can find the definitions, but for that particular one there seems to be very little commentary, and I also suspect I'd need to be rather familiar with the ConTeXt core before I could understand it -- I certainly can't see where the "before=" goes in, for instance. And that's about all I know about, other than doing a Google search on the mailing-list archives, which rarely addresses the general stuff. Is this all due to an actual lack of documentation for ConTeXt itself, or is there something large and important that I'm missing? Thanks, - Brooks

2 1

Define new flow chart cell shape
by Pedro Mendonça 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

Hi Hans! I'm using the flow chart module and I want to know how to create a new cell shape using MetaPost and assign that new shape to a shape number. Could you give me an example? Thanks. Pedro Mendonca. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Maisfutebol - a paixão do futebol actualizada ao minuto. Saiba tudo sobre o Euro 2004 e vibre com as emoções do futebol. http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/

2 1

[Fwd: Please forward]
by Hans Hagen 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

2 1

Metapost: minus sign as "unknown"
by Christopher Creutzig 01 Aug '04

01 Aug '04

Dear list, please find attached a small ConTeXt file using metapost and mp-format.mp. When compiled directly (with \write18 enabled), the minus sign of the first MPgraphic is rendered (by metapost) as "unknown". The very same code in the second example works. When compiling with texexec --automp, the problem does not exist. Versions: This is pdfeTeX, Version 3.14159-1.10b-2.1 (Web2C 7.4.5) ConTeXt ver: 2004.6.26 fmt: 2004.7.17 int: english mes: english This is MetaPost, Version 0.641 (Web2C 7.4.5) metafun 2004-7-17 22:18 TeXExec 3.3 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1997-2003 TeXUtil 7.5 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1992-2003 regards, Christopher Creutzig

1 0

PDFTeX Homepage
by Salman Khilji 31 Jul '04

31 Jul '04

If I google for pdfTeX homepage, then I get the following link: http://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/ However, this must not be the official homepage as it seems to not have been updated in a long time and also does not mention anything about the available 1.20 version. Also I cannot find the file named pdftexlib.zip as mentioned in the user manual on the above site. Where I can find the latest and greatest versions and documentatio on PDFTeX? Salman

2 1

on posters, again
by Eros Albertazzi 30 Jul '04

30 Jul '04

Still struggling to get a poster with Context. Somehow I am puzzling why almost all my collegue who are accustumed to write with latex+revtex for chem-math-phys journals then turn to powerpoint to produce poster and/or presentation, although "ConTeXt is the layout oriented alternative to the well known LaTeX." and switching tex macro should be easy. I feel there is a lacking in information and/or guide that preclude its use within this comunity. Anyhow my question: Can I have text within a (settable) margin in \setlayerframe? Probably not since margin are defined in \setuplayout and having a page layout atop of another one may not make sense.... Hereis a latex example of what should be easier (and more durable and flexible) to accomplish with contex http://andreas.welcomes-you.com/projects/a0poster/ http://andreas.welcomes-you.com/projects/a0poster/demo/poster.pdf

2 3

PDFTeX sources
by Salman Khilji 30 Jul '04

30 Jul '04

1) I want to know the simplest way (and the minimal way) to compile PDFTeX on Windows. From the manual, I see that you have to download web-7.3.tar.gz web2c-7.3.tar.gz pdftex.tar.gz However, this assumes that you have ./configure available (means UNIX or Cygwin). While I have been using Linux for the past two years, I'm afraid, I am too incompetent, dumb, lazy, stupid, and stubborn to learn autoconf and autotools---I want to know exactly what steps are performed while compiling the program and it would be best understood if I had a simple Visual C++ project file to work with. I want to be able to compile pdfTeX from sources using an already available DSP (MS Visual C++ project file)---this means it should somehow use an already existing config.h file. I downloaded the MikTeX sources, but it comes with 65535 other files and directories that I do not need and also mandates the download of Cygwin. 2) Basically, I want to learn a little about the internals of pdfTeX to investigate if I can take the PDF specific C source code out of it and somehow use then in the TeX++ project (which is a reincarnation of CommonTeX, which was an implementation of TeX written in C from scratch by Pat Monardo). I must admit that TeX++ is a piece of cake to install and compile simply because there is no autoconf and autotools to convolute the project. I have been reading TeX, the program these days from cover to cover and comparing the source code to the TeX++ sources and the two are as close as it can get. So I suppose, one could take PDFTeX, strip it out of the web2c files, massage the rest to fit TeX++, and have an easy to compile, and extend version of TeX that produces PDF files directly. Any inputs on this matter? Salman

3 2

RE: [NTG-context] more footnotes:-)
by ishamid 29 Jul '04

29 Jul '04

>% program=aleph output=dvipdfmx > >% the next texexec will automatically generate pdf which is handy for >scit eusers -) Does the latest fpTeX carry dvipdfmx (r u still using fpTeX)? I must confess I'm still using odvips-ps2pdf for all of my output... Best Idris

3 2

Question starttables ... stoptables and pagebrake
by Bernd Militzer 29 Jul '04

29 Jul '04

Hi Hans, using tables for a long documentation it wold be fine, if I could force a page brake after specific rows. The command \page does not work. Thanks for any help Bernd

2 3

Re: [NTG-context] more footnotes:-)
by Hans Hagen 29 Jul '04

29 Jul '04

ishamid wrote: >[please forward to list] > > >>===== Original Message From Hans Hagen <pragma(a)wxs.nl> ===== >>% program=aleph output=dvipdfmx >> >>% the next texexec will automatically generate pdf which is handy for >>scit eusers -) >> >>\setupcolors[state=start] >> >>\starttext >> >> > >Ok, here is a modified test file. The headers on pages 1 and 2 should be the >same throughout the entire document. Of course, when I make the temporary >global direction switch, the location of the headers get switched too. My >problem is that I have not been able to create a combination of \setupheaders >and \setuppagenumbering so that I can adjust the headers during the temporary >direction switch so that it appears that the header locations remain constant: > > ... Last night I played a bit with aleph. One of the things that we need to keep in mind with omega is that the fact that it can typeset in multiple directions does not mean that this automatically works out well when turned on. Layout issues as well as language specific issues are up to macro packages. Omega is not a multi language or multi directional typesetting system by itself, but can be used to build one. Now, before we start hacking around, and thereby mess up context, we need to figure out a way to deal with these issues, so the main question is how directional typesetting is related to document design. - directions change per paragraph, rest of doc unchanged - directions change per document, all components are influenced - directions change per document, some components are influenced - etc so, what should happen with - page ornaments (headers, footers etc): locations and content - graphics: placements and content and captions - tables: structure and content - mp graphic: text and graphics - main text: indentation, skips, text, ... Of course one can say that we need to have all possibilities, but i tend to stick to those that make sense. Are there any resources on for instance right-left book design/typography? I don't know how many users are interested in these matters; maybe we should discuss this off list Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Re: A few questions regarding ConTeXt
by Hans Hagen Outside 28 Jul '04

28 Jul '04

Broberg, Mats wrote: >Dear Sir, > >For some time now, I have been looking for suitable software solutions >for my publication projects. The projects are mainly books up to 500-750 >pages, with alot of figures, CMYK, solid PMS or lineart images, cross >references, several series of margin notes and footnotes, drop caps, >list of figures, indices, tables of contents etc. > >I have never used TeX or any of the wide array of macro packages, but I >know from having read about it that it can solve many of my publication >problems - and with a very high level of typographic quality too (which >is important to me). Initially, I was looking closely at using LaTeX - >mainly due to the fact that it is so widely used and has a vast number >of packages for the functions I need - but when coming across your site, >I think that ConTeXt may fit the bill better, since it seems to be >designed in a more parameter-driven way. > >However, judging from the documentation on your site, some features that >I have read about in LaTeX - such as drop caps, complex headers, cross >references, several series of footnotes etc (i.e. the packages >"lettrine", "fancyhdr", "varioref" and "ledmac") - don't seem to be >available in ConTeXt. > >I assume packages like these can not be used "out of the box" when using >ConTeXt, but that one needs to have someone create new packages? > > I'm a bit in a hurry (need to give a workshop at the practical tex conference). The features you mentioned are present in the core system, often providing more features; opposite to latex, where you need packages, context has all things built in. More information can be get from the rather active context mailing list. I cc the mail to there, so that others can confirm this Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

6 8

ConTeXt output & commercial printing houses
by Matt Gushee 28 Jul '04

28 Jul '04

Hello, all-- I am planning to publish a book that is typeset using ConTeXt, and very soon I am going to start contacting printers for estimates. Given that a shop prints from PDF files, does it matter that the PDFs are produced by ConTeXt? I've never worked with regular printers, but I have taken PDF files produced by TeX or ConTeXt several times to Kinko's [for the non-US readers: Kinko's is a shop found all over North America--originally they were just a photocopy shop, but now they offer a wide range of services, including computer rental, design consulting, low-end POD printing ... they do good work within their limits, but their staff are really only knowledgeable about mainstream commercial DTP software--the notion of TeX is totally beyond them]. I have found that they can produce good results, but it seems they have to adjust some settings in their system and make several attempts before the job comes out right. Are problems likely to arise with normal printers? If so, can anyone suggest questions I should ask to help determine whether they can handle my files? Also, is there anything in particular I should do to my files to make sure they are print-ready? Thanks in advance for any suggestions. -- Matt Gushee When a nation follows the Way, Englewood, Colorado, USA Horses bear manure through mgushee(a)havenrock.com its fields; http://www.havenrock.com/ When a nation ignores the Way, Horses bear soldiers through its streets. --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)

11 17

TeXshow failing
by Willi Egger 28 Jul '04

28 Jul '04

Hi Hans, Don't know where to fix this: When I try to run texshow from the command line the following error occurs: Empty compile time value given to use lib at c:/mytex/texmf/scripts/context/perl /texshow.pl line 42 Can't locate cont_mis.pm in @INC (@INC contains: C:/Program Files/Perl/lib C:/P rogram Files/Perl/site/lib .) at c:/mytex/texmf/scripts/context/perl/texshow.pl line 65. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at c:/mytex/texmf/scripts/context/perl/texshow .pl line 65. I wonder why texexec.pl is looking for the cont_mis.pm in the Perl directory, while it resides in the same directory as texexec.pl itself? When starting texshow within Scite it fails to come up. I believe that it is the same problem though. Could you please have a look into this? Kind regards Willi

2 1

makempy - graphictext failing?
by Awkster＠aol.com 28 Jul '04

28 Jul '04

I've recently installed context after seeing it for the first time at Practical Tex2004 Installation seems to have worked but some metapost code is failing to produce output. Code is provided below: Platform(s)/OS: SuSE 8.1 linux with TeXLive Windows 2000 with TeXLive command line: texexec testMP Is there a problem with the source code or might it be with my installation? Thanks. D. Claudio %%%Code Follows%%%%%%%%%% % interface=english output=pdftex % Filename: testMP.tex \setupcolors[state=start] \starttext \startMPgraphic graphictext "MP" scaled 8 withdrawcolor .7blue withfillcolor .7white dashed evenly withpen pencircle scaled 2pt ; \stopMPgraphic \loadcurrentMPgraphic \placeMPgraphic \stoptext

2 1

[Fwd: ocplist interactions [please forward]]
by Hans Hagen 28 Jul '04

28 Jul '04

1 0

more footnotes:-)
by ishamid 28 Jul '04

28 Jul '04

Dear partners in crime, I have come across a situation where, in a left-to-right document, I need to make the footnotes operate right to left: that is, the footnote numeral and rule should be on the right side of the page. Now when using the global direction changes that eomega/Gamma offers, this is trivial for a global right-to-left document (\pagedir TRT and \bodydir TRT are the global settings), but in a globally left-to-right document I have not been able to get this to work locally. To explain: \textdir TRT and \pardir TRT locally switch the text and paragraph directions respectively, but not the footnote markers and rule. This is correct behavior of course. But I have an article that includes a long right-to-left extract with footnotes, and those footnotes need to be RL in the sense described above (numeral + rule). Is there any way to add a parameter option to \setupfoonotes which, between---say, a \start-\stop---that can locally switch the location of the numeral and marker to RL? Please help: I'm supposed to send this thing to the printer next week:-)) Best Idris PS \pagedir TRT and \bodydir TRT don't seem to help this proble when applied in a local context.

2 1

more footnotes:-)
by Idris Samawi Hamid 28 Jul '04

28 Jul '04

Dear partners in crime, I have come across a situation where, in a left-to-right document, I need to make the footnotes operate right to left: that is, the footnote numeral and rule should be on the right side of the page. Now when using the global direction changes that eomega/Gamma offers, this is trivial for a global right-to-left document (\pagedir TRT and \bodydir TRT are the global settings), but in a globally left-to-right document I have not been able to get this to work locally. To explain: \textdir TRT and \pardir TRT locally switch the text and paragraph directions respectively, but not the footnote markers and rule. This is correct behavior of course. But I have an article that includes a long right-to-left extract with footnotes, and those footnotes need to be RL in the sense described above (numeral + rule). Is there any way to add a parameter option to \setupfoonotes which, between---say, a \start-\stop---that can locally switch the location of the numeral and marker to RL? Please help: I'm supposed to send this thing to the printer next week:-)) Best Idris PS \pagedir TRT and \bodydir TRT don't seem to help this proble when applied in a local context. -- Professor Idris Samawi Hamid Department of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523

2 1

itemize, adobekb
by Thomas A.Schmitz 28 Jul '04

28 Jul '04

These are two very basic questions, but I couldn't find basic answers. Am quite willing to RTFM, but would be grateful for pointing to specific sections. So here comes: 1) Is it possible to have something in front of the number in numbered itemize-groups? Like LatTeX-style [1] etc. All I could find was the "stopper= " setup, but nothing for "starters." 2) The adobekb typescript is now part of the context macro package, right? (tex/context/base/type-akb.tex). But whenever I have this in my documents: \usetypescript[adobekb][\defaultencoding] \setupbodyfont[pos,12pt] everything works well, my document is typeset in times, but I get this error: bodyfont : unknown variant pos What gives? Has "pos" been replaced by a new magic formula? All best Thomas

6 7

accents in "funny frame"
by olivier Turlier 28 Jul '04

28 Jul '04

Hello Contexers, I play with the "funny frame" code given by Hans et al. How put accentuation (french) in the frame title ? I use latest context .iso image (ConTeXt ver. 2004.6.21 fmt: 2004.6.21 int: english mes: english) Below is the source (compiled with : texmfstart texexec.pl --autopdf --pdf funny-french-frame.tex): ---------------------------------------- %funny-french-frame.tex \enableregime[il1] \useencoding[ffr] \mainlanguage[fr] \enableregime[windows] \setupindenting[medium] \usetypescript[palatino][texnansi] \setupbodyfont[palatino,rm,12pt] \setupcolors[state=start] %---------------------------------------------------- funny frame \startMPenvironment \enableregime[il1] % \useencoding[ffr] % \mainlanguage[fr] % not working \enableregime[windows] % \usetypescript[palatino][texnansi] \setupbodyfont[palatino,rm,14pt] \stopMPenvironment % \startuseMPgraphic{FunnyFrame} %--------- white background, blue square frame % picture p; numeric w, h, o; % p:=textext.rt(\MPstring{FunnyFrame}); % w:=OverlayWidth; h:=OverlayHeight; o:=BodyFontSize; % p:=p shifted (2o,h-ypart center p); draw p; % drawoptions (withpen pencircle scaled 1pt withcolor .625blue); % draw (2o,h)--(0,h)--(0,0)--(w,0)--(w,h)--(xpart urcorner p, h) ; % draw boundingbox p; % setbounds currentpicture to unitsquare xyscaled (w,h); % \stopuseMPgraphic \startuseMPgraphic{FunnyFrame} %---------- grey background, red randomized frame picture p ; numeric o ; path a, b ; pair c ; p := textext.rt(\MPstring{FunnyFrame}) ; a := unitsquare xyscaled(OverlayWidth,OverlayHeight) ; o := BodyFontSize ; p := p shifted (2o,OverlayHeight+ypart center p) ; drawoptions (withpen pencircle scaled 1.5pt withcolor .625red) ; b := a randomized (o/2) ; fill b withcolor .95white ; draw b ; %---- color of main text c := center p ; c := b intersectionpoint (c shifted (0,-o)--c shifted(0,o)) ; p := p shifted (c-center p) ; b := (boundingbox p) randomized (o/4) ; fill b withcolor .90white ; draw b ; %----- color of title draw p withcolor blue ; setbounds currentpicture to a ; \stopuseMPgraphic \defineoverlay[FunnyFrame][\useMPgraphic{FunnyFrame}] \defineframedtext[FunnyText][frame=off,background=FunnyFrame] \def\StartFrame{\startFunnyText} \def\StopFrame{\stopFunnyText} \def\FrameTitle#1% {\setMPtext{FunnyFrame}{\hbox spread 3em {\ss\bf\hss\strut#1\hss}}} \setMPtext{FunnyFrame}{} %------------------------------------------------------- \setupheadertexts[\currentpage~/~\lastpage] \starttext \FrameTitle{Introduction } \StartFrame On présente tout ce qui a un rapport avec {\it l'origine} du stage \StopFrame \page \FrameTitle{Développement} %---------------------- accent not working \StartFrame On présente tout le {\it déroulement} du stage, par groupe de tâches \StopFrame \page \FrameTitle{Conclusion} \StartFrame \startlines On {\it analyse} le stage point par point -- négatif et positif -- on {\it synthétise} l'ensemble des apports, et on entrevoit le {\it futur} professionnel {\it concrètement} \stoplines \StopFrame \page \stoptext --------------------- Thanks for your answer(s) -- olivier TURLIER

2 2

[Fwd: Re: [NTG-context] unicode editor? [please forward]]
by Hans Hagen Outside 27 Jul '04

27 Jul '04

1 0

Shading transparency / missing linear_shade variant
by Eckhart Guthöhrlein 27 Jul '04

27 Jul '04

Hi all, experimenting with transparencies, I have obviously come to a limitation: color shading does not work for transparent colors. What I have in mind is a bar filled with a color gradient, starting from a certain (non-transparent) color and ending transparent, i.e. vanishing into the background. However, the transparent color appears just black. Furthermore, the shading variants for linear_shade do not correspond with those listed in the metafun manual, page 180. Variant 2 is missing and behaves like variant 3 should. Example: \setupcolors[state=start] \setupbackgrounds[page][background=color,backgroundcolor=red] \startMPenvironment[global] \definecolor[HeadLineColor][r=0,g=0,b=1] \definecolor[Transparent][r=1,g=1,b=1,t=0,a=normal] \stopMPenvironment \startreusableMPgraphic{test} numeric u; u=3cm; path p; p := unitsquare xscaled u yscaled u cornered (u/10); for i=0 upto 3 : linear_shade(p shifted(i*u,0),i,\MPcolor{HeadLineColor},\MPcolor{Transparent}); endfor; \stopreusableMPgraphic \starttext \reuseMPgraphic{test} \stoptext -- Eckhart

3 5

metaobj and transparent colors with \MPcolor
by Eckhart Guthöhrlein 27 Jul '04

27 Jul '04

Hi, I try to achieve transparently filled objects using the metaobj package. However, transparency is ignored completely in the output, I just get a normal white. Here is my test file: \setupcolors[state=start] \setupbackgrounds[page][background=color,backgroundcolor=red] \startMPenvironment[global] \definecolor[Durchsichtig][r=1.0,g=1.0,b=1.0,t=0.0,a=normal] \stopMPenvironment \startreusableMPgraphic{test} input metaobj; setObjectDefaultOption("Box")("fillcolor")(\MPcolor{Durchsichtig}); newBox.test(btex Transparent? etex) "filled(true)"; Obj(test).c=origin; drawObj(test); \stopreusableMPgraphic \starttext \reuseMPgraphic{test} \stoptext If I use the fillcolor as an argument to the object newBox.test(btex Transparent? etex) "filled(true)" "fillcolor(\MPcolor{Durchsichtig})"; I get error messages from the mpost run. So it seems that metaobj and \MPcolor don't like each other. Any ideas how to circumvent this problem? Regards, Eckhart

5 9

Fwd: (Classical) greek in ConTeXt/Gamma [please forward]
by Giuseppe Bilotta 27 Jul '04

27 Jul '04

Idris sent me this asking me to forward it. My reply follows. ===8<==============Original message text=============== Hi Giuseppe, I was digging in the archives and came across this; I don't think I ever saw this message (must have been busy at the time). Did you ever get an answer? I'm sure that editing the otp's will get you the result u wanted quite easily, but in the year since u wrote this u've probably figured that out already:-) Best Idri [NTG-context] (Classical) greek in ConTeXt/Gamma Giuseppe Bilotta ntg-context(a)ntg.nl Thu, 10 Apr 2003 15:40:35 +0200 Hello, I don't know if Idris is following the group (I hope he is), but anyway I have a couple of questions on the support for Greek in ConTeXt, Omega and thus also Gamma. The need is that of typesetting classical greek snippets in a latin (Italian, but could be English) context. I thought that ConTeXt+(e-)Omega would be the best thing in town, so I prepared a small test file: \usemodule[gamma] \mainlanguage[italian] \starttext Possiamo scrivere tranquillamente in italiano; questo non ci priva per\`o della possibilit\`a di scrivere in greco: vediamo subito l'alfabeto minuscolo e maiuscolo (notare come j dia \greek{j} e c dia il sigma di fine parola \greek{c}): \startgreek a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z \stopgreek \`E ovviamente possibile usare segni diacritici come gli accenti (\greek{`a, 'a, =a}) o gli spiriti (\greek{<r, >w}); osserviamo come questi assumano automaticamente la posizione corretta nel caso di lettere maiuscole (\greek{`A, 'A, =A, <A, >A, Ai}) \stoptext While it seems to work pretty well most of the time, there seem to be some problems; I'd like to know where they arise from and if and how they can be fixed. The problems: Combination Doesn't give <r rho with spirit =A capital alpha with circumflex <A capital alpha with spirit Moreover, I don't know how to write the subscribed iota. My system is a MiKTeX 2.2 with (e-)Omega 1.15. Does anybody have an idea? -- Giuseppe "Oblomov" Bilotta ===8<===========End of original message text=========== My reply: Well, I'm pretty sure the bug is in the OTPs that come with Omega (which is pretty funny, considering that Yannis *is* Greek ...). I guess that when the rougher edges in Aleph are fixed we'll start correcting the OCPs :) -- Giuseppe "Oblomov" Bilotta

3 3

suppressing hyphenation and setlayerframed
by Eros Albertazzi 27 Jul '04

27 Jul '04

1- I would like to suppress hypenation in a text of a \startfiguretext within a \setlayerframed I am aware of the thread in jan 03 on the list and the fact that\setupalign[nothyphenated] (or \nohyphens) overshoot the right margin On the other hand I do not know where to put the align={left,nothyphenated,width} that was suggested in the reply here is the piece I work with: \setlayerframed[page][preset=righttop, column=1,line=30][width=\dimexpr((\paperwidth-2cm)/2),align=]{\getbuffer[b]} with the buffer: \startfiguretext [left][]{} {\externalfigure[t1][width=.2\textwidth]} ... <<<nohypened text>>... \stopfiguretext 2- still awfully raw on context I am looking for the options of \setlayerframed, list and meaning, command that is absent from manuals or web info-tools in details.pdf some examples are build with \setlayer[..][..]{\framed[..]{..}} what's the difference, if any, betwwen the two form?

1 0

RE: [NTG-context] unicode editor?
by ishamid 27 Jul '04

27 Jul '04

Hi Henning, >===== Original Message From Henning Hraban Ramm <hraban(a)fiee.net> ===== >> Hans and others use SciTE. Does it provide Unicode/bidirectional >> support >> support? > >You can set it up to use UTF-8, but I don't think it supports r-t-l or >bidi. That's really too bad:-(( I actually have UniType Global Writer but it's really a pain to use for TeX source editing. On the other hand, it can be used to copy and past to WinEdt (where it will show up as utf-8 ascii). An all-in-one solution would be much better though. Now I'm a KDE lover myself;-) but doesn't GTK support bidi/rtl? So shouldn't SciTE support bidi right out of the box? In any case, I would still like to try SciTE if Hans' support files are available somewhere. Quick question: how does one activate utf-8? Best Idris

3 2

RE: [NTG-context] unicode editor?
by ishamid 27 Jul '04

27 Jul '04

Thnx 4 this reference; I'll try it! Best Idris >===== Original Message From sebastian.rooks(a)free.fr ===== >Hello, >What about Mined http://towo.net/mined/ ? >It's utf-8 and right to left. >Untested ;).

2 1

Disable Metapost rendering?
by SebastianSturm＠t-online.de 26 Jul '04

26 Jul '04

Hi, I really like ConTeXt's MP processing features, but as soon as I include more than five or six MP graphics in a document, typesetting slows down to a crawl. As far as I know, the PSTricks package has some option to only process a given range of the figures defined in the TeX file and reuse the existing output for the other ones. Is there a similar function in ConTeXt? Some global command like \donotrerender[1-n] would be great, a processing tag for each figure like \startuseMPgraphic{...}[rerender=no] would be perfect. Best regards, Sebastian Sturm

3 6

Re: unicode editor? [please forward]
by Giuseppe Bilotta 26 Jul '04

26 Jul '04

Monday, July 26, 2004 ishamid wrote: > [for forwarding to the list] > Dear knights of the round table, > I generally do my Arabic work in Aleph/eomega in Latin transcription mode, but > things are at a point now where I would like to code TeX using unicode (and a > unicode otp filter). Now I use WinEdT and really love it (I even designed > buttons for for a few functions), but the maintainer has indicated that it > will be quite some time before WinEdT supports unicode+right-to-left > typesetting. Are any of you aware of a good multi-platform (thinking of > switching to Linux again) unicode editor? (and no, at this time I'm not ready > to spend months (re-)learning/fighting/cursing XEmacs;-> (could never get MULE > to work anyway...)) I personally use ViM, even though its support for TeX & friends is very limited. -- Giuseppe "Oblomov" Bilotta

3 2

RE: [NTG-context] unicode editor?
by ishamid 26 Jul '04

26 Jul '04

>What about Mined http://towo.net/mined/ ? >It's utf-8 and right to left. >Untested ;). Drat! it runs from a terminal:-(( Oh well, I'll try it anyway... Best Idris

1 0

[Fwd: unicode editor? [please forward]]
by Hans Hagen Outside 26 Jul '04

26 Jul '04

2 1

[Fwd: SciTE? [please forward]]
by Hans Hagen Outside 26 Jul '04

26 Jul '04

1 0

[Fwd: \setuppagenumbering problem [Please Forward]]
by Hans Hagen Outside 26 Jul '04

26 Jul '04

1 0

[Fwd: ocplist interactions [please forward]]
by Hans Hagen Outside 26 Jul '04

26 Jul '04

1 0