- ntg-context - NTG Mailing Lists

Making exams in Context
by Jorge Manuel de Almeida Magalhães 28 May '06

28 May '06

I need to prepare an exam. My choice is obviously ContexT, but I have some difficulty in generating multiple choice questions in random order. Each student will have one different exam. In Latex I use MUCH (http://fourier.math.uoc.gr/~mk/much/) Did you can tell me if it has a similar solution in ConTexT? Thanks Jorge

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/author parameters in Bib module
by "Guðmundur J. Kristjánsson" 28 May '06

28 May '06

Hi all. I´m a relative newbie in ConTEXt but have used LaTEX for a couple of years. I recently decided to write me master's thesis in ConTEXt and so far it has been sweet... I was looking into the Bib module and there is only one thing that I can't find in the documentation. What are parameters in the \author field? This is what I found in the documentation: \author[#1]{#2}[#3]{#4}{#5} AUTHOR The author of a standalone publication, like a monograph. What do #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5 stand for? If we look at the doc we get: \author[]{Taco}[T.]{}{Hoekwater} So we get: #2 = First name. #3 = Initial of first name? Middle name? #5 = Last name I have no idea what to do with #1 and #4. Thanks in advance... Best regards/Kær kveðja, Guðmundur J. Kristjánsson gjk(a)vitum.net | gjk(a)hi.is | Tel. +354-893-4444.

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Paragraph line breaking
by nico 28 May '06

28 May '06

Hello, I'm trying to tweak some parameters to avoid lines going into the margin when it contains long words. Using \setuptolerance[tolerant (or verytolerant)] helps much but sometimes it isn't enough. My questions are: - Using \filename doesn't hyphenate on backslash characters (which is interesting for Windows paths). Is is intended? - Is there a macro or something like this that I could put before the maybe too long word so that it breaks the line if the word doesn't fit in the line? - Is there a mechanism to define an arbitrary hyphenation pattern? - What are the other parameters I could try to avoid an overlong line? Looking at the style.pdf file, i don't realy know what is pertinent for my purpose. Thanks for any hint. Regards, BG

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Space between footnote number and text
by jeffdod＠netzero.net 28 May '06

28 May '06

Does anyone know of a way to get rid of the space between a footnote number and the footnote text? I am formatting my footnotes in paragraph form (n=0) and sometimes the footnote numbers actually appear at the end of a line with the text wrapped around to the beginning of the next line (which doesn't look very attractive). I would prefer there to be no space at all between the footnote number and the text, but if there has to be one, it seems like it should be a non-breaking space. Is there a way to "fix" this? Jeff Dodson _____________________________________________________________________ Call Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere in the World - FREE! Free Internet calling from NetZero Voice Visit http://www.netzerovoice.com today!

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A question for you
by Idris Samawi Hamid 28 May '06

28 May '06

Dear fellow gangsters, I have a question for you all, recalling an exchange with John Culleton last fall: http://www.ntg.nl/pipermail/ntg-context/2005/013498.html In your views, what are the strengths and weaknesses of ConTeXt? For example, under what circumstances do you prefer to use a word processor (Word/OOo), a layout processor (InDesign), or just Plain(e)TeX over ConTeXt? (Actually the link above deals with Plain TeX but just in case you have anything to add). In Maps 33-2005 Taco did an article based on our answers to the question, "What do you do with ConTeXt"? I would like to see the answers to the _opposite_ question: Which typesetting tasks do you NOT do in ConTeXt, and what do you prefer to use for those tasks? A corallary question: What typesetting tasks do you find difficult-to-onerous in ConTeXt (even in nothing else is available)? Your insights will be very much appreciated. I for one look forward to the day ConTeXt takes over the world! Take care and all the Best Idris -- Professor Idris Samawi Hamid Department of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523 -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

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Textext Question
by Jean Magnan de Bornier 27 May '06

27 May '06

Hello, I'm having some trouble with MPgraphics; here is a minimal example: ............................. \setupoutput[pdftex] \runMPgraphicstrue \setuppapersize[S6][S6] \setupcolors[state=start] \startMPinclusions numeric u; u=.8cm; path AX; AX = drawdblarrow (10u,0) -- (0,0) -- (0,10u); \stopMPinclusions \starttext \startuseMPgraphic{dummy} pickup pencircle scaled 1mm; draw AX withcolor blue; label.rt(textext("$3x^2+\pi$"), (5u,6u)); \stopuseMPgraphic \placefigure[left]{bla.bla}{\useMPgraphic{dummy}} \input dawkins \stoptext ............................. After compilation with texexec I get "unknown" instead of the expected label. What is wrong with me? TeXExec 5.4.3 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1997-2005 texexec : TeXExec 5.4.3 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1997-2005 texutil : TeXUtil 9.0.0 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1992-2004 tex : pdfeTeXk, 3.141592-1.30.4-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.5) context : ver: 2005.10.27 cont-en : ver: 2005.10.27 fmt: 2006.4.28 mes: english Thanks ia -- Jean

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notes on columnset typesetting (not only about)
by Vit Zyka 27 May '06

27 May '06

Dear ConTeXters, surprisingly, in this e-mail you will find any bug report! It is a summary of my experience with typesetting of a little complex book layout. I have finnished it during a one year long winning battle. Thank to everybody who helped, especially of course to Hans. Thank you very much! ------------------ Next text can show, what is in present ConTeXt (or a bit older one) possible and what is still problematic. Firstly, let us show some examples: - transparency frames ftp://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/pub/cmp/users/zyka/vg-ex/vg05-ex-body1.pdf - two columnsets + marginals + figures + balancing ftp://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/pub/cmp/users/zyka/vg-ex/vg05-ex-body2.pdf - two columnsets + page float ftp://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/pub/cmp/users/zyka/vg-ex/vg05-ex-body3.pdf - three columnsets + floats ftp://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/pub/cmp/users/zyka/vg-ex/vg05-ex-encyk.pdf - content ftp://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/pub/cmp/users/zyka/vg-ex/vg05-ex-content.pdf - index ftp://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/pub/cmp/users/zyka/vg-ex/vg05-ex-index.pdf Legend for comming comments: + pros - cons ? dreaming about new feature ! attention = my (perhaps suboptimal) solution * note Comments: > grid + very powerfull and working support + works gracefully with columnsets and floats * avoiding orphans and widows was done manually by: = enlarging/decreasing figures = adding/removing (half)blank lines around heads ? if we want to do avoiding orphans and widows automatically, we would probably need the glue with DISCRETE STEP of stretch/shrink. Then we can say e.g. \let\bl=\baselineskip \setuphead [section] [before=\vskip1\bl plus1\bl withstep1\bl] to get vertical space before section head exactly 1 OR 2 \baselineskip height. Another solution with stepwise box: \vbox to2\bl plus2\bl withstep1\bl{\vfil heading \vfil} ! the only problem was in the table of contents + columns; from the first line there was a small shift between columns; perhaps \splittopskip? but setting it to large enough value does not solve it. > columnsets + very nice feature, really; after Hans improvement seems that some floats soes not dissappered now, but need to be carefull + floats insertion with specifying place ? for top float: automatically setting \placeongrid[{broad,high}] for bottom float \placeongrid[{broad,low}] to be vertically align with text on the rest of column(s) * balancing: only manually by setting: \setupcolumnsetlines[columnset_id][columnset_page][column][line] ! Not so painful if it not occures next: If there are many floats near balancing place they sometimes disappear or cause ignoring balancing - even if they can fit on the place. ? understand that automatical balancing with floats is extremly difficult * page floats: big improvements during the work. ! running marginal text continue through the page with only float = so you have to manually insert blank vertical margin on such place * header & footers: Hans did a new column marking: \getmarking[marking_id][column][last/first]. ! There are some problems [perhaps with expansion (different counter number and text)] if marking goes between two columnsets (framed chapters cross two cols in examples). = found acceptable hack but need more ivestigation on small examples for cleaning. > metapost inclusion + the most powerful, smooth and stable part of ConTeXt in my opinion (see random frames, circles with transparent graphics, lines with color shading) = if you have many (over 1024!) shadings (-> MP specials) do \settrue \manyMPspecials > index (register) + nice possibility to differentiate several groups (here 8 from which 4 have different visual marking of page number, see index example) - sorting: until this spring there was no satisfied backround for Czech sorting in newtexutil.rb till this spring. = I did dirty reimplementation of old texutil.pl for doing so * I have to have a look for new sorting now. - coupling: page numbers with group preserving (see example) = also in texutil.pl reimplementation > regime * my great discovery was that the regime IS \enableregime{latin2} % correct and NOT \enableregime{il2} % incorrect! > pseudo-small caps = http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Pseudo_Small_Caps > ... I provide the environment files (design definition) in case of somebody's interest. But suddenly they are very very very dirty. Partially due to my unsufficient ConTeXt knowledge, partially due to my despair during trying many ways to solve some problem, partially due to putting pathes to old ConTeXt (it was fresh of course when the work begins), ...: ftp://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/pub/cmp/users/zyka/vg-ex/vg05-env.tex (core) ftp://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/pub/cmp/users/zyka/vg-ex/vg05-mark.tex (markup) Best Vit

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Re: [NTG-context] Stuck in texmfstart
by Neal Lester 27 May '06

27 May '06

At 10:38 AM 5/26/2006, you wrote: >On 5/26/06, Neal Lester <neal(a)3dsafety.com> wrote: > > At 09:17 AM 5/26/2006, you wrote: > > >This morning, when I try to run texexec, texmfstart gets stuck in the > > >loop at line 262. > > > > Placing > > > > puts f > > > > below line 266 ( f.gsub(...) do > > > > prints: > > > > $TEXROOT/texmf/{-local,}/web2c/texmf.cnf > > > > (over and over again) > >Mine doesn't seem to enter this loop -- nothing is printed. The >above line looks >like the entry from texsetup with an extra "/": > >set TEXMFCNF=%TEXPATH%texmf{-local,}/web2c What I did is copy setuptex to /etc/profile.d/setuptex.sh and then hard coded the value of TEXROOT in setuptex.sh instead of having the script set it from the command line argument. echo $TEXMFCNF prints $TEXROOT/texmf{-local,}/web2c Neal

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new release
by Hans Hagen 27 May '06

27 May '06

Hi, Today i'll upload a new release. Highlights: - some fixes/extensions discussed the last few weeks - xetex support adapted to using xdvipdfmx - ctxtools --update which will update your local context - an update feature in scite (can be used a example for other editors) - an integrated mpto (more robust that the binary approach) (btw, use textext instead of btex .. etex when possible) Taco will undoubtely give mnore details later. Keep in mind that you need to change the stubs: - preferable use texmfstart to launch scripts - texmfstart itself can be stubbed if needed - there is a ../scripts/context/stubs path in the zip 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [NTG-context] XeTeX "hangs"
by Hans Hagen 27 May '06

27 May '06

Otared Kavian wrote: > > As told above, ConTeXt is called from within TeXShop, but doing > texexec eth-hans-2.tex --pdf > in a Terminal window gives the same result (I apologize for not being > still up dto date with texmfstart... :-) ) > > I wanted to let you know that I am gathering a number of issues or > ConTeXt things which do not work properly when ConTeXt is used > together with XeTeX. Should I send them directly to you and Taco or > post each problem separately on the list? > > > ok, what you see happen in 'non xetex context' is ok, \catcode`Ã°=\active \defÃ°{^^F0} will fail because pdftex is *not* utf and only sees 8 bit characters, so you can only set the catcodes 0-255 \catcode `<number>=<number> and in your case `Ã will become a number ° but ° not \bgroup \let\unicodechar\unicodenumber \catcodeÃ°=\active \defÃ°{^^F0} \egroup could work (watch out: no `) but again, \catcode<16 bit number> is not accepted by regular 8 bit tex so, a the moment, what you observe is ok; at the end of this year, in a 32 bit pdftex, things may work different 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------

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