I am a mathematician, and have been using LaTeX on a daily basis since
1992, when I was a graduate student. I have recently started using
ConTeXt, and am very happy with the facilities it provides, and with its
self-contained system which does not require one to load external
packages with subtle interactions.
One problem that I am facing is that the documentation of ConTeXt is
often not enough for me to figure out what to do when a problem arises.
I understand that documentation is perhaps not a priority for the
project. As Hans Hagen wrote in `? Context',
"... writing can get a lower priority in a time when quick and dirty
answers can be found on the internet, mailing list or wiki. ... For
what it's worth: whenever I have to solve a problem with a program
(or language implementation) I run into cases where I have to look
long to find (non conflicting) information. It just comes with the
problems one wants to solve and TeX (ConTeXt) is not different."
However, there is not a great deal of information on the Internet about
solving ConTeXt problems. Whenever I ran into a LaTeX problem in the
last several years, I used to find a solution, or a substantial step
towards one, that was already documented on the TeX-LaTeX Stack
Exchange. Unfortunately, it does not contain a similar amount of
information about ConTeXt. In any case, I have started posting ConTeXt
questions there, see https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/397463/146025 and
https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/397607/146025
As for the mailing list, I posted three requests for help here in the
last one week. When I bumped my first message after more than a day
without any response, Tomas Hala kindly came to my rescue. The other
two messages, posted four and two days ago, have not elicited any
response yet. This contrasts with Aditya Mahajan's experience, which he
describes in his interview at
http://tex-talk.net/2012/08/textalk-an-interview-with-aditya/:
"Most questions on the context mailing lists are answered within
minutes ... look in the main manual and the wiki to see how to
achieve the particular effects that you wanted, and if you cannot
figure it out, ask on the context mailing list."
I understand that we are all busy, and it is not easy to find time to
answer novice queries on the list.
Lastly, I found the Wiki useful sometimes for quick and dirty solutions
to problems, and sometimes as a source of documentation. Yet there have
been several cases where I could not find what I wanted in it.
For example, I could not find the answers to my last two queries on this
list and to my two questions on SE, in the manual, on the archives of
this list, or on the Wiki.
These problems mean that I have to spend much more time experimenting
and searching before I find a reasonable way to get the things I want
with ConTeXt. Given the beauty of the results that ConTeXt returns, I
don't mind that. However, I wonder if there are others who have similar
problems learning about ConTeXt, and if they have some words of advice
for me. I am also interested in ways to help people with similar
difficulties.
Regards,
Raghu.
--
N. Raghavendra