- 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

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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 >

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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

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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

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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 >

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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

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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

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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/

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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 ?

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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

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