On Mon, 20 Aug 2007, Istvan Hollerbach wrote:

Dear Everybody,

My name is Istvan Hollerbach. I am still looking at ConTeXt. Are usable with ConTeXt only modules found at http://modules.contextgarden.net/, or which usable are with plain TeX as well?

Most of the modules avaialbe at modules.coontextgarden.net are usuable only with Context. However, most macros for plain tex work with context.

I think of xypic for example. Can I write a document for example in Sanskrit? Being a beginner, of course I will neither use xypic for a some length of time, nor I will write a document in Sanskrit. I am only interested in possibilities compared to LaTeX.

In principle, since latex and context are both build on top of tex engine, anything that is possible in one is also possible in the other. However, it does take some effort to port the functionality of one from the other. In general, with regards to packages, most latex packages enhance the capabilities of built in latex environments. With context, the built in environments were designed with flexibility in mind and are easy to change. So you do not need external packages. Most latex font packages are useless for context. You will need to write your own typescripts if you want to use the fonts in context. In most cases this is simple. For non-latin languages like Sanskrit, you will need to do some work if you want to get it working with ConTeXt. Traditionally, non-latin languages worked using transcription. So you write something in latin alphabet, run a program which translates it into something else, and then run tex over that file. This is how the devnag package for latex works. But now, with xetex and luatex, you do not need to do this. You can type in unicode and rest of it just works. I had tried using Hindi (a modern day offshoot of Sanskrit) using XeTeX (the XeTeX website has an example), and changed the markup to ConTeXt and it worked. It should be similar with Sanskrit, and other languages like languages from the Arabic family. For special purpose packages like xypic, if the package has an option for plain tex (like xypic, pictex, pstricks, pgf, and many more), it also works with ConTeXt. If it is not plain tex compatible, then you will have to port it to ConTeXt. In some cases this can be difficult. So, if there is a esoteric, domain specific, package that you must have, make sure that there is something comparable in context before making the shift. If you are not sure, ask here. Aditya