Hi Hraban Here are my thoughts on your ConTeXt Book. [TOC] Definitely only show Chapters and Appendices. A list of sections could go under the Chapter Title, it would more useful there. I don't think there is also a need include sub-sections, (if you have them) it could make the list inordinately long. [Registers] My own preference would be a command and a topic index if only for convenience sake. [Glossary] I don't think an index of abbreviations is necessary if they are already in the index. [Other Lists] I don't think a list of colours is necessary, you could just point them to the wiki. Just my thoughts, and I look forward to read the English version of your book. (smiling) Best Wishes Keith McKay p.s. It's been so long since I worked with technical books that I would have to blow the dust off them. On 10/08/2023 14:21, Henning Hraban Ramm wrote:
Hi, this is about my ConTeXt book again…
[ToC]
At the moment, my table of contents has chapters and sections and is 8 pages long. I would probably hardly use it.
Maybe it would be better to show only chapters (29 content + 12 appendix = 2 pages) and include a list of sections after the chapter title (or not at all).
[Registers]
I split between command and topic index (9 pages each), because I find it annoying to have the commands between the topics. I also include the topics that are mentioned in titles in the index, because I hate it if I must look in two places. (Otherwise I wouldn’t think about omitting the sections from the ToC.)
At the moment there‘s also an index of todo items, but that will disappear before print.
[Glossary]
There’s a short dictionary of technical terms in the appendix (8.5 p.). Each lemma is also included in the index.
Should I add a list of abbreviations? (TDS, TEI, OCG, RAL, PDF, SVG…?) They’re in the index and explained where they matter – I don’t think the meaning of many abbreviations like file types is important.
[Other lists]
Should I include a list of colors, like the output of \showcolor[crayola]? (I think it would only bloat the book, and everyone can create the list themselves.)
I have lists of supported languages (should get checked), fonts in the distribution and all math fonts, because these are not easily reproducible (AFAIK).
So, what do you think, and how do you like to work with technical books? What kind of information (about ConTeXt or documents/printing in general) do you find hard to find?
Hraban ___________________________________________________________________________________
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