Hello everyone!
As an eternal newbie (with a memory like a goldfish), I started
by building my own documentation from the web pages constructed by
Bertrand Masson (prehistory archaeologist in Northern France) "les
fiches à Bébert" (obsolete version here: http://bertrandmasson.free.fr/;
new recommended version here: http://lesfichesabebert.fr/TeX/context/context-intro.html).
As mentionned by Alain Delmotte.
Bertrand Masson always keeps his site up to date, as he gives
references to the documentation compiled by Garulfo (Joaquín Ataz
López ), available in several languages, which I personally found
well-done, useful and welcome. It's interesting to note with a
rather positive smile that documentations, even if they're never
really up to date in the details of ConTeXt's evolution, copy each
other: that's what I did to write the beginning of a Wikibook in
French (https://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/ConTeXt/Qu%27est-ce_que_ConTeXt_%3F).
I took things written by Bertrand Masson and was partially taken
over by Garulfo and so on.
Fortunately, the ConTeXT discussion list offers MWEs: all you have
to do is to test them and save these examples on your system in
the CTX-TESTS document folder. The next step is to classify these
examples under the appropriate headings, then insert them into a
coding system for a complex document that always calls for
requests for explanations from discussion list participants.
This question of documentation seems to me to be an age-old snake,
not only on a technical subject which can be complex, as ConTeXt
can be, but also concerning other types of documentation. For my
part, although I haven't yet exhausted all the available
documentation resources, whether internal to the distribution, or
online like the ConTeXt Garden wiki, I think (but this has been
better expressed here by others than me) that a real documentation
refresh could be carried out collectively, with the great ambition
of keeping obsolete documentation in an archive, while proposing a
wiki with the date of update visible, in correlation with the PDF
version. I have no idea how this documentation update could be
achieved, but the fact is that it would be desirable to devote a
section to the purely technical and basic aspects of CTX
installation and font availability on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, BSD,
etc., with MWEs and examples a little more detailed. Once this
documentation has been passed as an introductory part (itself
containing chapters explaining how this page of documentation was
put together, with notes in the margins, etc.), this book could
introduce MKIV, LuaTeX, MetaPost and so on, but with a clear
distinction between the objectives sought: writing documentation
with figures, writing a thesis in mathematics and physics, how to
construct figures, or a bibliography. Not to mention the handling
of photographs in an aesthetically demanding layout; all this with
the possibility of showing complete or partial examples of work
produced...
In a nutshell: even if I give the impression that I'm asking you
to reinvent the wheel, in reality it's a question of collating
relevant existing information in a way that is intelligible and
clear to the neophyte, but that also meets the demands of
experienced users, who don't all use ConTeXt for the same reasons.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not telling you what to do, I'm just
giving you my opinion. Basically, I'm saying: documentation
exists, but it has to be reliable, up to date, easy to find and
enable you to make progress in difficult situations. As I said, I
found Garulfo's work very welcome. It's not obsolete and doesn't
need replacing. But perhaps it could be amended on certain points
and completed and made available both in PDF and online in the
ConTeXt Garden wiki pages?
So, if by hypothesis the relevant documentation exists, here and
there, but it's in the middle of pages that are in the past, it
can be considered a daunting task to go looking for information
that you realize is no longer up to date, because experience shows
that it's no longer reliable. If confusion reigns, those seeking
to apply what they've read risk turning away from ConTeXt, or
asking the same questions over and over again.
So there's plenty of food for thought to be had when it comes to
methods for overhauling existing documentation. It's not a
question of thinking long and hard about the availability of this
documentation (on line or as a PDF?), but rather of knowing
whether to build an encyclopedia, or a series of manuals, each of
which is intended to circumscribe as closely as possible the
problems encountered when attempting this or that form of page
layout.
I remember being astonished to discover, when I first started
learning ConTeXt, all the vocabulary that existed around page
layout (in French: Grand fond, petit fond, blanc de tête, blanc de
pied, etc.), vocabulary that we ignore when we come from Word
office automation (see here:
http://www.lesfichesabebert.fr/TeX/context/MiseEnPage.html).
Over the years, my initial astonishment hasn't completely
disappeared, since I consider ConTeXt to be a particularly
powerful tool that allows many things, even if I'm not able to
produce them easily. The resources are considerable, depending on
the questions asked on the discussion list, and even if I don't do
anything other than write courses and layout all kinds of texts.
In any case (and I'll say it again), I don't think there's any
need to start from scratch. But a systematic collection of
information, presented in an orderly fashion (by subject or by
notion?), showing how to reach the goal you've set yourself,
respecting the rules of the art of publishing, going from the
simple to the complex, would be a good thing. The question before
us is: how and by whom? Hans rightly replied, "Days only have 24
hours". This is true for him and even for those of us who, like
me, are really basic users. The fact remains, however, that the
ConTeXt Garden wiki has in recent years proved to be the place
where you can contribute to modifying existing information, or
shed new light on it, while at the same time responding to the
problems you encounter.
Perhaps we should clean up this wiki while at the same time
recovering ConTeXt's internal documentation, to give it a bit of a
polish?
I add to the list the articles on ConTeXt that have appeared in TUGboat issues over the years.
CiaoTommaso
Il giorno gio 15 feb 2024 alle ore 17:39 Alain Delmotte <alain.delmotte@leliseron.org> ha scritto:
___________________________________________________________________________________One could also have a look at
https://www.lesfichesabebert.fr/TeX/TeX.html
It is website introducing Context in French.
The author was using LaTeX, but he switched to Context for his work maintaining a regular publication.
Note: the site is now under reworking, but it is very interesting.
Alain
Le 14-02-24 à 23:25, Hans Hagen via ntg-context a écrit :
There's also:
https://github.com/contextgarden/not-so-short-introduction-to-context
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
-----------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context
wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context
wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror) archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________