New user here!

John Was

14 Jun 2025 14 Jun '25

12:37 p.m.

Good day, Contexters I've been using plain TeX for many years (EmTeX, if anyone can remember that, and latterly XeTeX), but my motivation for getting acquainted with ConText, rather late in life, is the need to produce tagged PDFs that will be accessible to the visually impaired (generally using an audio reader), and I understand (or at least hope) that ConText can help with that. I'm only just getting started with the *Not so Short Introduction*, and of course have many questions which I think/hope I will be able to answer myself from the documentation: I've not managed to load pstricks or edmac, for example, but this must be possible, and some primitives such as \baselineskip seem to have disappeared, together with the font-call system I'm used to: \font\umirtenpointsevenfive = "MinionPro-Regular:+onum:mapping=tex-text:letterspace=1.6" at 10.75pt All that will come as I read the instructions, but what I'm most interested to achieve is tagging that will not only produce the usual column of bookmarks at the left-hand side but will also allow an audio reader to read such things as alt-text for illustrations and, crucially, read a heavily footnoted text in the correct order. For this I take it that the footnotes will have to be tagged in a special way, allowing visually impaired readers either to suppress them as the text is read out, or else to include them at the point where the cue occurs, then revert back to the main text. With my XeTeX-produced PDFs an audio reader will simply read all of the main text on a page, then the footnotes (the last of which may be split between pages), and then start again on the next page - clearly annoying and unacceptable to those who can't see the PDF. I'd be most grateful to be pointed in the right direction - or is what I've outlined simply not achievable? Best wishes John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Pablo Rodriguez

14 Jun 14 Jun

3:40 p.m.

On 6/14/25 12:37, John Was wrote:

...

Good day, Contexters

Hi John, welcome to the mailing list.

...

I've been using plain TeX for many years (EmTeX, if anyone can remember that, and latterly XeTeX), but my motivation for getting acquainted with ConText, rather late in life, is the need to produce tagged PDFs that will be accessible to the visually impaired (generally using an audio reader), and I understand (or at least hope) that ConText can help with that.

PDF tagging is being added to ConTeXt. This means that some features may need to be added yet.

...

I'm only just getting started with the /Not so Short Introduction/, and of course have many questions which I think/hope I will be able to answer myself from the documentation: I've not managed to load pstricks or edmac,

As for pstricks (never used it), I have just found that there is a module `m-pstrick', but it doesn’t work with LuaMetaTeX. I couldn’t make it work with LuaTeX either (sample from https://mailman.ntg.nl/archives/list/ntg-context@ntg.nl/message/RJR7MRTPR7S3...). edmac is almost three decades old. If you want https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wujastyk/edmac/refs/heads/main/Wujastyk%20..., this should be achievable with ConTeXt (no modules needed).

...

for example, but this must be possible, and some primitives such as \baselineskip seem to have disappeared

LuaMetaTeX happens to have a primitive with the same name, https://www.pragma-ade.nl/general/manuals/luametatex.pdf#page=93.

...

together with the fontcall system I'm used to:

\font\umirtenpointsevenfive = "MinionPro-Regular:+onum:mapping=tex- text:letterspace=1.6" at 10.75pt

Not clear to me what the second command (after `\font`) means in plain English.

...

[...] With my XeTeX-produced PDFs an audio reader will simply read all of the main text on a page, then the footnotes (the last of which may be split between pages), and then start again on the next page - clearly annoying and unacceptable to those who can't see the PDF.

This is probably due to a poorly tagged PDF document (my guess).

...

I'd be most grateful to be pointed in the right direction - or is what I've outlined simply not achievable?

I think LuaLaTeX may achieve that too (for your info). Not sure whether our tagging is that far now (with notes). I hope it helps, Pablo

Wolfgang Schuster

4:03 p.m.

Am 14.06.2025 um 15:40 schrieb Pablo Rodriguez via ntg-context:

...

On 6/14/25 12:37, John Was wrote:

...
Good day, Contexters

Hi John,

welcome to the mailing list.

...
[...]

As for pstricks (never used it), I have just found that there is a module `m-pstrick', but it doesn’t work with LuaMetaTeX.

I couldn’t make it work with LuaTeX either (sample from https://mailman.ntg.nl/archives/list/ntg-context@ntg.nl/message/RJR7MRTPR7S3...).

pstricks uses postscript which isn't supported with pdftex, luatex etc.

...

edmac is almost three decades old. If you want https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wujastyk/edmac/refs/heads/main/Wujastyk%20..., this should be achievable with ConTeXt (no modules needed).

...
for example, but this must be possible, and some primitives such as \baselineskip seem to have disappeared

LuaMetaTeX happens to have a primitive with the same name, https://www.pragma-ade.nl/general/manuals/luametatex.pdf#page=93.

\baselineskip is the primitive used with \setupinterlinespace

...

...
together with the fontcall system I'm used to:

\font\umirtenpointsevenfive = "MinionPro-Regular:+onum:mapping=tex- text:letterspace=1.6" at 10.75pt

Not clear to me what the second command (after `\font`) means in plain English.

The context version is \definefont [umirtenpointsevenfive] [file:MinionPro-Regular*<featureset> at 10.75pt] and it creates the font switch \umirtenpointsevenfive like the xetex version. Wolfgang

John Was

4:30 p.m.

Dear Wolfgang Many thanks - especially for the syntax for font calls, which I'm sure I would have got to eventually but not without a bit of swearing, I fear... I don't mind learning another graphics package - I'm no expert in Pstricks in any case, but I often find it useful for drawing fairly straightforward lines, circles, etc. For edition work I use the tree module (rather clumsily) to produce diagrams of manuscript descendancy and relation, but I'm not envisaging using ConTexT for that kind of text. Best wishes John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Sat, 14 Jun 2025 at 15:04, Wolfgang Schuster < wolfgang.schuster.lists@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Am 14.06.2025 um 15:40 schrieb Pablo Rodriguez via ntg-context:

...
On 6/14/25 12:37, John Was wrote:

...
Good day, Contexters

Hi John,

welcome to the mailing list.

...
[...]

As for pstricks (never used it), I have just found that there is a module `m-pstrick', but it doesn’t work with LuaMetaTeX.

I couldn’t make it work with LuaTeX either (sample from

https://mailman.ntg.nl/archives/list/ntg-context@ntg.nl/message/RJR7MRTPR7S3... ).

pstricks uses postscript which isn't supported with pdftex, luatex etc.

...
edmac is almost three decades old. If you want

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wujastyk/edmac/refs/heads/main/Wujastyk%20... ,

...
this should be achievable with ConTeXt (no modules needed).

...
for example, but this must be possible, and some primitives such as \baselineskip seem to have disappeared

LuaMetaTeX happens to have a primitive with the same name, https://www.pragma-ade.nl/general/manuals/luametatex.pdf#page=93.

\baselineskip is the primitive used with \setupinterlinespace

...
...
together with the fontcall system I'm used to:

\font\umirtenpointsevenfive = "MinionPro-Regular:+onum:mapping=tex- text:letterspace=1.6" at 10.75pt

Not clear to me what the second command (after `\font`) means in plain English.

The context version is

\definefont [umirtenpointsevenfive] [file:MinionPro-Regular*<featureset> at 10.75pt]

and it creates the font switch \umirtenpointsevenfive like the xetex version.

Wolfgang

___________________________________________________________________________________ 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

___________________________________________________________________________________

Pablo Rodriguez

5:41 p.m.

On 6/14/25 16:03, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

...

[...] pstricks uses postscript which isn't supported with pdftex, luatex etc.

Just as a general comment, Taco developed Escrito (https://escrito.luatex.org/) in order to have pstricks in LuaTeX (https://escrito.luatex.org/bt10/escritotalk.pdf#page=2). But it clearly seems that he abandoned this project in the meantime. Pablo

John Was

4:04 p.m.

Dear Pablo Thanks for the quick response. I'm only just starting and many of the questions, as I say, will answer themselves when I get into the documentation properly. I'm sure pstricks will be workable (\usemodule[pstricks] doesn't generate an error, but when you actually try to use pstricks it fails - but there will be another way). Edmac is not likely to be needed for the books I have in mind, but it is essential for editions that I typeset from time to time with XeTeX and I don't think anything else will give me the same control (surprisingly, in ConText it seems to halt on encountering \newinsert - another TeX primitive that I often use for other purposes but which must have a differently named equivalent in Context). \umirtenpointsevenfive is just my own invented name forthe MinionPro typeface at 10.75pt with the features that you saw in my example (old-style numerals etc.) - but I'm sure Context's own system of calling specific font sizes will become clear to me shortly. All that aside, it is definitely the tagging that I want to get working - my XeTeX-produced PDFs have no tagging, and automated tagging tools produce absolutely nothing - that won't be acceptable to repositories such as Perspectivia, which now quite rightly insists on PDFs that are compliant with the latest accessibility legislation. I will try not to bombard the list with childish questions, though - there is much I need to learn quietly on my own before I can get a successfully formatted (and hopefully tagged) chapter, at which point I will no doubt need help with fine-tuning the output. Best wishes John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Sat, 14 Jun 2025 at 14:41, Pablo Rodriguez via ntg-context < ntg-context@ntg.nl> wrote:

...

On 6/14/25 12:37, John Was wrote:

...
Good day, Contexters

Hi John,

welcome to the mailing list.

...
I've been using plain TeX for many years (EmTeX, if anyone can remember that, and latterly XeTeX), but my motivation for getting acquainted with ConText, rather late in life, is the need to produce tagged PDFs that will be accessible to the visually impaired (generally using an audio reader), and I understand (or at least hope) that ConText can help with that.

PDF tagging is being added to ConTeXt. This means that some features may need to be added yet.

...
I'm only just getting started with the /Not so Short Introduction/, and of course have many questions which I think/hope I will be able to answer myself from the documentation: I've not managed to load pstricks or edmac,

As for pstricks (never used it), I have just found that there is a module `m-pstrick', but it doesn’t work with LuaMetaTeX.

I couldn’t make it work with LuaTeX either (sample from

https://mailman.ntg.nl/archives/list/ntg-context@ntg.nl/message/RJR7MRTPR7S3... ).

edmac is almost three decades old. If you want

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wujastyk/edmac/refs/heads/main/Wujastyk%20... , this should be achievable with ConTeXt (no modules needed).

...
for example, but this must be possible, and some primitives such as \baselineskip seem to have disappeared

LuaMetaTeX happens to have a primitive with the same name, https://www.pragma-ade.nl/general/manuals/luametatex.pdf#page=93.

...
together with the fontcall system I'm used to:

\font\umirtenpointsevenfive = "MinionPro-Regular:+onum:mapping=tex- text:letterspace=1.6" at 10.75pt

Not clear to me what the second command (after `\font`) means in plain English.

...
[...] With my XeTeX-produced PDFs an audio reader will simply read all of the main text on a page, then the footnotes (the last of which may be split between pages), and then start again on the next page - clearly annoying and unacceptable to those who can't see the PDF.

This is probably due to a poorly tagged PDF document (my guess).

...
I'd be most grateful to be pointed in the right direction - or is what I've outlined simply not achievable?

I think LuaLaTeX may achieve that too (for your info).

Not sure whether our tagging is that far now (with notes).

I hope it helps,

Pablo

___________________________________________________________________________________ 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

___________________________________________________________________________________

Wolfgang Schuster

4:17 p.m.

Am 14.06.2025 um 16:04 schrieb John Was:

...

Dear Pablo

Thanks for the quick response. I'm only just starting and many of the questions, as I say, will answer themselves when I get into the documentation properly. I'm sure pstricks will be workable (\usemodule[pstricks] doesn't generate an error, but when you actually try to use pstricks it fails - but there will be another way). Edmac is not likely to be needed for the books I have in mind, but it is essential for editions that I typeset from time to time with XeTeX and I don't think anything else will give me the same control (surprisingly, in ConText it seems to halt on encountering \newinsert - another TeX primitive that I often use for other purposes but which must have a differently named equivalent in Context).

Context is like latex a macro package with its own interface and support for footnotes, floats etc. Unless you know what you're doing and the side effects with contexts own mechanism you shouldn't use primitives like \insert. The pstricks module isn't supported anymore and even in the past it worked only when you used postscript as output format. Wolfgang

Aditya Mahajan

4:32 p.m.

On Sat, 14 Jun 2025, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

...

The pstricks module isn't supported anymore and even in the past it worked only when you used postscript as output format.

The pstricks module created a temp file, processed it using texexec, and converted the generated ps to pdf using ps2pdf. You could automate it using filter module (by processing the figures using latex!) Something along the lines of: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/462257/323 Aditya

John Was

4:52 p.m.

Dear Aditya Very clever - many thanks. I see that there are lots of tricks in Context that I can use once I get off the ground with it. Best wishes John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Sat, 14 Jun 2025 at 15:37, Aditya Mahajan wrote:

...

On Sat, 14 Jun 2025, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

...
The pstricks module isn't supported anymore and even in the past it worked only when you used postscript as output format.

The pstricks module created a temp file, processed it using texexec, and converted the generated ps to pdf using ps2pdf. You could automate it using filter module (by processing the figures using latex!)

Something along the lines of: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/462257/323

Aditya

___________________________________________________________________________________ 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

___________________________________________________________________________________

Hans Hagen

6:10 p.m.

On 6/14/2025 4:32 PM, Aditya Mahajan wrote:

...

On Sat, 14 Jun 2025, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

...
The pstricks module isn't supported anymore and even in the past it worked only when you used postscript as output format.

The pstricks module created a temp file, processed it using texexec, and converted the generated ps to pdf using ps2pdf. You could automate it using filter module (by processing the figures using latex!)

Something along the lines of: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/462257/323

Actually, there is a ps interpreter (m-escrito) that taco wrote a few decades ago when postscript was still hip and that I redid / optimized one decaded ago, which is still around .. you can run that file and get this tiger; i suppose I could actually optimize it a bit more and even integrate it with pstricks but i bet no one will revert back to pstricks so i never bothered. We keep it around for the fun of it and those who like to program in postscript. 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------

Aditya Mahajan

16 Jun 16 Jun

2:34 p.m.

On Sat, 14 Jun 2025, Hans Hagen wrote:

...

On 6/14/2025 4:32 PM, Aditya Mahajan wrote:

...
On Sat, 14 Jun 2025, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

...
The pstricks module isn't supported anymore and even in the past it worked only when you used postscript as output format.

The pstricks module created a temp file, processed it using texexec, and converted the generated ps to pdf using ps2pdf. You could automate it using filter module (by processing the figures using latex!)

Something along the lines of: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/462257/323

Actually, there is a ps interpreter (m-escrito) that taco wrote a few decades ago when postscript was still hip and that I redid / optimized one decaded ago, which is still around .. you can run that file and get this tiger; i suppose I could actually optimize it a bit more and even integrate it with pstricks but i bet no one will revert back to pstricks so i never bothered. We keep it around for the fun of it and those who like to program in postscript.

Thanks. I'll check it. But I agree. Postscript is a really esoteric programming language and IMO the pstricks wrapper not very elegant. So there is very little value in providing a wrapper around it. Aditya

John Was

3:06 p.m.

Thanks - it's at least useful to know what I needn't waste my time on! I see that I shall also have to master ConTexT's commands for tables, though I hope they are customizable (as per my training at OUP a lifetime ago, I like a half-point rule at the beginning and end but a quarter-point rule between headings and the data). Plain (Xe)TeX's \halign command works only for that generally useless item, a table with only one column - if you try add an extra column the setting halts and one is presented with the false information that there is more than one instance of # between instances of & in the setup of the table. They lie! I'm disappointed that I can't use \catcode = \active to do anything useful - I do often use that, particularly to fetch a character not in the typeface. For example, if I want a yogh and am obliged to use a particular typeface (because of house style for a journal or book series) that doesn't have the character, I would give in the file header in XeTeX: \catcode"0292=\active \defʒ{\yogh} (I have \yogh defined as 'put \char"0292 here, grouped within {}, from Junicode'.) That allows me to keep the character ʒ in the input file and leave it to TeX to carry out the appropriate instruction whenever it encounters it. This is prohibited in ConTexT, I find, but I'll have to learn a new way of achieving the same thing. But I *did* promise not to bombard the list with silly newbie questions! Best John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Mon, 16 Jun 2025 at 13:47, Aditya Mahajan wrote:

...

On Sat, 14 Jun 2025, Hans Hagen wrote:

...
On 6/14/2025 4:32 PM, Aditya Mahajan wrote:

...
On Sat, 14 Jun 2025, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

...
The pstricks module isn't supported anymore and even in the past it worked only when you used postscript as output format.

The pstricks module created a temp file, processed it using texexec, and converted the generated ps to pdf using ps2pdf. You could automate it using filter module (by processing the figures using latex!)

Something along the lines of: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/462257/323

Actually, there is a ps interpreter (m-escrito) that taco wrote a few decades ago when postscript was still hip and that I redid / optimized one decaded ago, which is still around .. you can run that file and get this tiger; i suppose I could actually optimize it a bit more and even integrate it with pstricks but i bet no one will revert back to pstricks so i never bothered. We keep it around for the fun of it and those who like to program in postscript.

Thanks. I'll check it.

But I agree. Postscript is a really esoteric programming language and IMO the pstricks wrapper not very elegant. So there is very little value in providing a wrapper around it.

Aditya

___________________________________________________________________________________ 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

___________________________________________________________________________________

Taco Hoekwater

3:51 p.m.

...

On 16 Jun 2025, at 15:06, John Was wrote:

Thanks - it's at least useful to know what I needn't waste my time on!

I see that I shall also have to master ConTexT's commands for tables, though I hope they are customizable (as per my training at OUP a lifetime ago, I like a half-point rule at the beginning and end but a quarter-point rule between headings and the data). Plain (Xe)TeX's \halign command works only for that generally useless item, a table with only one column - if you try add an extra column the setting halts and one is presented with the false information that there is more than one instance of # between instances of & in the setup of the table. They lie!

This should help: https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Tables/Natural_tables_with_TABLE#Rules

...

I'm disappointed that I can't use \catcode = \active to do anything useful - I do often use that, particularly to fetch a character not in the typeface. For example, if I want a yogh and am obliged to use a particular typeface (because of house style for a journal or book series) that doesn't have the character, I would give in the file header in XeTeX:

\catcode"0292=\active \defʒ{\yogh}

(I have \yogh defined as 'put \char"0292 here, grouped within {}, from Junicode'.) That allows me to keep the character ʒ in the input file and leave it to TeX to carry out the appropriate instruction whenever it encounters it.

This is prohibited in ConTexT, I find, but I'll have to learn a new way of achieving the same thing.

\yogh is not predefined in ConTeXt. The \catcode change itself is fine, but you will have to come up with a definition for \yogh. Something like \def\yogh{{\switchtobodyfont[dejavu]\char"0292 }} Best wishes, Taco — Taco Hoekwater E: taco@bittext.nl genderfluid (all pronouns)

John Was

5:43 p.m.

Thanks Taco. I'm sure I'll get the hang of the new tabular commands eventually - though reproducing the example on pp. 274-5 of the Not so Short Introduction doesn't quite work (the second column is shifted a line down from the first column - but I guess there's something I should have set up initially to get it to work). It's not the definition of \yogh that would cause me any difficulty, but the fact that I can't say: \defʒ This works in plain (Xe)TeX after I've reassigned the \catcode of \char"0292 to \active, but ConTexT grumbles that I must have a backslash after \def, and when I try that the compilation still fails. No matter - I'll figure it out eventually! Best wishes John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Mon, 16 Jun 2025 at 14:54, Taco Hoekwater wrote:

...

...
On 16 Jun 2025, at 15:06, John Was wrote:

Thanks - it's at least useful to know what I needn't waste my time on!

I see that I shall also have to master ConTexT's commands for tables, though I hope they are customizable (as per my training at OUP a lifetime ago, I like a half-point rule at the beginning and end but a quarter-point rule between headings and the data). Plain (Xe)TeX's \halign command works only for that generally useless item, a table with only one column - if you try add an extra column the setting halts and one is presented with the false information that there is more than one instance of # between instances of & in the setup of the table. They lie!

This should help:

https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Tables/Natural_tables_with_TABLE#Rules

...
I'm disappointed that I can't use \catcode = \active to do anything useful - I do often use that, particularly to fetch a character not in the typeface. For example, if I want a yogh and am obliged to use a particular typeface (because of house style for a journal or book series) that doesn't have the character, I would give in the file header in XeTeX:

\catcode"0292=\active \defʒ{\yogh}

(I have \yogh defined as 'put \char"0292 here, grouped within {}, from Junicode'.) That allows me to keep the character ʒ in the input file and leave it to TeX to carry out the appropriate instruction whenever it encounters it.

This is prohibited in ConTexT, I find, but I'll have to learn a new way of achieving the same thing.

\yogh is not predefined in ConTeXt. The \catcode change itself is fine, but you will have to come up with a definition for \yogh. Something like

\def\yogh{{\switchtobodyfont[dejavu]\char"0292 }}

Best wishes, Taco

— Taco Hoekwater E: taco@bittext.nl genderfluid (all pronouns)

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luigi scarso

5:55 p.m.

On Mon, 16 Jun 2025 at 17:44, John Was wrote:

...

Thanks Taco. I'm sure I'll get the hang of the new tabular commands eventually - though reproducing the example on pp. 274-5 of the Not so Short Introduction doesn't quite work (the second column is shifted a line down from the first column - but I guess there's something I should have set up initially to get it to work).

It's not the definition of \yogh that would cause me any difficulty, but the fact that I can't say:

\defʒ

\def\MyHello{Hello!} \def\defʒ{\MyHello} \starttext \defʒ \stoptext this works with mkiv (it always worked, as far as I can remember ) -- luigi

John Was

6:57 p.m.

Hello Taco That's very interesting - slightly different from XeTeX (\def\def instead of \def, for example), but I think I'll be able to work things out from there. Many thanks. Best wishes John *🇪🇺 * Слава Україні! * 🇺🇦* http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail Virus-free.www.avg.com http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Mon, 16 Jun 2025 at 16:58, luigi scarso wrote:

...

On Mon, 16 Jun 2025 at 17:44, John Was wrote:

...
Thanks Taco. I'm sure I'll get the hang of the new tabular commands eventually - though reproducing the example on pp. 274-5 of the Not so Short Introduction doesn't quite work (the second column is shifted a line down from the first column - but I guess there's something I should have set up initially to get it to work).

It's not the definition of \yogh that would cause me any difficulty, but the fact that I can't say:

\defʒ

\def\MyHello{Hello!} \def\defʒ{\MyHello} \starttext \defʒ \stoptext

this works with mkiv (it always worked, as far as I can remember )

-- luigi

___________________________________________________________________________________ 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

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Wolfgang Schuster

7:26 p.m.

Am 16.06.2025 um 15:06 schrieb John Was:

...

Thanks - it's at least useful to know what I needn't waste my time on!

I see that I shall also have to master ConTexT's commands for tables, though I hope they are customizable (as per my training at OUP a lifetime ago, I like a half-point rule at the beginning and end but a quarter-point rule between headings and the data). Plain (Xe)TeX's \halign command works only for that generally useless item, a table with only one column - if you try add an extra column the setting halts and one is presented with the false information that there is more than one instance of # between instances of & in the setup of the table. They lie!

I'm disappointed that I can't use \catcode = \active to do anything useful - I do often use that, particularly to fetch a character not in the typeface. For example, if I want a yogh and am obliged to use a particular typeface (because of house style for a journal or book series) that doesn't have the character, I would give in the file header in XeTeX:

\catcode"0292=\active

\defʒ{\yogh}

(I have \yogh defined as 'put \char"0292 here, grouped within {}, from Junicode'.) That allows me to keep the character ʒ in the input file and leave it to TeX to carry out the appropriate instruction whenever it encounters it.

This is prohibited in ConTexT, I find, but I'll have to learn a new way of achieving the same thing.

The best solution is use a font which contains all characters needed for the document but it's possible to set fonts which are used as fallback for characters which are missing in the main font. %%%% begin example \definefallbackfamily [John] [serif] [Stix Two Text] [range=0x0292] \definefontfamily [John] [serif] [Latin Modern Roman] \starttext \setupbodyfont [modern] Latin Small Letter Ezh: ʒ \setupbodyfont [John] Latin Small Letter Ezh: ʒ \stoptext %%%% end example

...

But I /did/ promise not to bombard the list with silly newbie questions!

There is nothing wrong with asking question but you should start a new threat for each problem where you describe what you're trying to achieve. Forcing ConTeXt to work as a plain TeX machine is the wrong way because there are better solutions. Wolfgang

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Aditya Mahajan
Hans Hagen
John Was
luigi scarso
Pablo Rodriguez
Taco Hoekwater
Wolfgang Schuster

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