This is the output ConText gives me, when I use a newer version of ConText, 

==== output of run ===
mtx-context     | run 1: luatex --fmt="/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-cache/luatex-cache/context/5fe67e0bfe781ce0dde776fb1556f32e/formats/luatex/cont-en" --jobname="goasy" --lua="/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-cache/luatex-cache/context/5fe67e0bfe781ce0dde776fb1556f32e/formats/luatex/cont-en.lui" --no-parse-first-line --c:currentrun=1 --c:fulljobname="./goasy" --c:input="./goasy" --c:kindofrun=1 --c:maxnofruns=9 "cont-yes.mkiv"
This is LuaTeX, Version 1.06.2 (TeX Live 2018/dev) 
 system commands enabled.
open source     > level 1, order 1, name '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/mkiv/cont-yes.mkiv'
system          > 
system          > ConTeXt  ver: 2017.11.19 20:15 MKIV beta  fmt: 2017.11.21  int: english/english
system          > 
system          > 'cont-new.mkiv' loaded
open source     > level 2, order 2, name '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/mkiv/cont-new.mkiv'
close source    > level 2, order 2, name '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/mkiv/cont-new.mkiv'
system          > files > jobname 'goasy', input './goasy', result 'goasy'
fonts           > latin modern fonts are not preloaded
languages       > language 'en' is active
open source     > level 2, order 3, name '/home/icubic/go/src/bitbucket.org/wneimeijer/goasy/docs/manual/goasy.tex'
fonts           > preloading latin modern fonts (second stage)
fonts           > 'fallback modern-designsize rm 12pt' is loaded
open source     > level 3, order 4, name '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/fonts/mkiv/type-imp-libertine.mkiv'
close source    > level 3, order 4, name '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/fonts/mkiv/type-imp-libertine.mkiv'
fonts           > typescripts > unknown library 'default'
fonts           > defining > font with asked name 'linlibertiner' is not found using lookup 'file'
fonts           > defining > unknown font 'linlibertiner', loading aborted
fonts           > defining > unable to define 'linlibertiner' as 'libertine-12pt-rm-tf-0--0'
open source     > level 3, order 5, name '../setup_global.tex'
modules         > 'units' is loaded
open source     > level 4, order 6, name '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/modules/mkiv/m-units.mkiv'
resolvers       > lua > loading file '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/modules/mkiv/x-mathml.lua' succeeded
units           > The units module is obsolete because functionality is built into the core.
close source    > level 4, order 6, name '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/modules/mkiv/m-units.mkiv'
open source     > level 4, order 7, name '../setup_colors.tex'
colors          > defining > unknown library 'hex'
colors          > 'rgb' color space is supported
colors          > 'cmyk' color space is supported
open source     > level 5, order 8, name '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/mkiv/colo-imp-xwi.mkiv'
close source    > level 5, order 8, name '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/mkiv/colo-imp-xwi.mkiv'
colors          > system 'xwi' is loaded
close source    > level 4, order 8, name '../setup_colors.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 9, name '../setup_language.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 9, name '../setup_language.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 10, name '../setup_title.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 10, name '../setup_title.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 11, name '../setup_i18n.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 11, name '../setup_i18n.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 12, name '../setup_parts.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 12, name '../setup_parts.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 13, name '../setup_chapter.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 13, name '../setup_chapter.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 14, name '../setup_section.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 14, name '../setup_section.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 15, name '../setup_bookmarks.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 15, name '../setup_bookmarks.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 16, name '../setup_toc_foc.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 16, name '../setup_toc_foc.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 17, name '../setup_definitions.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 17, name '../setup_definitions.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 18, name '../setup_hyphen_rules.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 18, name '../setup_hyphen_rules.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 19, name '../setup_matrix.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 19, name '../setup_matrix.tex'
open source     > level 4, order 20, name '../setup_code.tex'
close source    > level 4, order 20, name '../setup_code.tex'
close source    > level 3, order 20, name '../setup_global.tex'
open source     > level 3, order 21, name '../setup_frontmatter.tex'
structures      > begin of sectionblock 'frontpart'
open source     > level 4, order 22, name 'title.tex'
metapost        > initializing instance 'metafun' using format 'metafun'
metapost        > loading 'metafun' as '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/metapost/context/base/mpiv/metafun.mpiv' using method 'default'
metapost        > initializing number mode 'scaled'
backend         > xmp > using file '/opt/context_new/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/mkiv/lpdf-pdx.xml'
pages           > flushing realpage 1, userpage 1, subpage 1
open source     > level 5, order 23, name '../setup_copyright.tex'
close source    > level 5, order 23, name '../setup_copyright.tex'
pages           > flushing realpage 2, userpage 1
close source    > level 4, order 23, name 'title.tex'
structure       > sectioning > title @ level 2 : 0.0 -> \headtext {content}
fonts           > defining > font with asked name 'linlibertinerb' is not found using lookup 'file'
fonts           > defining > unknown font 'linlibertinerb', loading aborted
fonts           > defining > unable to define 'linlibertinerb' as 'libertine-12pt-rm-bf-0-c-0'

tex error       > tex error on line 418 in file ../setup_frontmatter.tex: ! Undefined control sequence


\14>:texta ...idth=\textwidth ]{ {\cornflowerblue 
                                                  \userpagenumber } \hfill }
\17>>1 #1,->\syst_setups {#1}
                             \syst_helpers_do_process_comma_item 
\syst_helpers_do_process_comma_list ...rgument #1,
                                                  ]\relax \global \advance \...
<argument> \ignorecrlf \setups {texta}
                           {}{}{}
\secondoftwoarguments #1#2->#2
                              
\page_layouts_process_element_single_indeed ...#4}
                                                  \fi \endgroup 
...
l.39 \completecontent[partnumber=no]
                                  

=== end output ===

On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 10:01 PM, Wim Neimeijer <wneimeijer@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for all your input and help, but as said before I don't have the time to upgrade and than to discover existing things don't work
resulting in a complete new thread to debug these existing things and/or fix with a new beta installation. 

But that is perhaps not my biggest concern with all these beta releases, 
ConText is great and for the most part easy to use, I am more worried that
my existing ConText environment (setup) becomes broken, and/or resulting in complete different PDF output.
I have no way of knowing, apart from visually inspecting a lot of pages of PDF.

I thought including some code examples via \typefile (with a bit of text in either Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese or Korean)
could be achieved with a simple local font switch, or setting a regime or via \setuptyping but not on a global level
with \definefontsynonym, definefontfallback etc. 

My fix is to change the examples a bit and continue. 
Again thanks for the help





On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 9:25 PM, Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl> wrote:
On 12/6/2017 7:24 PM, Wim Neimeijer wrote:
I disagree, a version from 2016 is not very old. I have a lot of documents using a ConText setup which works with this version
of luatex and context.

Last week I tried to use the latest beta with my documents and the beta was unable to run my documents.
As it seems it is not backward compatible and I have no time at the moment to debug or test.
hm, normally updates are backwar dcompatible (apart from very beta features) ... what fails?



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