...

What is the following command for:

\setvariables[tst][set={\setupTst[1][n,\getvariable{tst}{broad}*broa d]

...

}]

This is enough, or are there any problems?

\setupTst[1][n,\getvariable{tst}{broad}*broad]

To explain it with simpler macros

\setvariables[tst][set={...}] is similar to

\def\tstset{\setupTst[1][n,\tstbroad*broad]}

and

\setvariables[tst][broad=5] is similar to

\def\tstbroad{5}

but the special thing is now that \setvariables calls \tstset (or to be concrete the value of the 'set' key in \setvariables after the) value was assigned to broad.

In a complete and simple example this is what happens:

\defineitemgroup[Tst]

\def\tstset{\setupTst[1][\tstbroad*broad]}

\starttext

\startTst \item text \stopTst

\def\tstbroad{5}\tstset

\startTst \item text \stopTst

\stoptext

Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang, my question was: Why is this \setvariables[tst][set=... necessary at all. The following example worked without that. \defineitemgroup[Tst] \setupTst[1][n,\getvariable{tst}{broad}*broad] \starttext \startTst \item text \stopTst \setvariables[tst][broad=5] \startTst \item text \stopTst \setvariables[tst][broad=9] \startTst \item text \stopTst % \showvariable{tst}{broad} \stoptext Wolfgang