On 2012-01-30 Aditya Mahajan wrote:

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My favourite command is \externalfigure [placeholder] because it produces very pretty colourful graphics (I'm bored to use the dutch cow or the wind mill every time). […]

You can also use my `\externalkitten` macro: http://randomdeterminism.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/images-for-documentation-e...

+ Nice idea + Natural \externalfigure UI + Great use case of ConTeXts http capability + Cute kitties + Even more cute kitties - Relies on an internet connection Marco

On 30-1-2012 20:12, Thomas A. Schmitz wrote:

Without a doubt, for me it's \dontcomplain - get rid of overfull messages. The name is just brilliant; it would be wonderful to have it available in real life! But if we want to be more serious: of course all the xml processing commands, and then the multiple \doif... tests which make programming in ConTeXt accessible even to people with no programming or math background.

don't forget \forgetall then ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | voip: 087 875 68 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

On 31-1-2012 00:23, Mojca Miklavec wrote:

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 19:55, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

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I guess many have *one* favorite command (maybe also functionality).

\simplethesis

(Sadly it is a bit buggy, else I would be finished already ;)

As I don't want to bre responsiible for you not passing an examn ... here's a fix (actually the random args were always swapped but the mkii code is not sensitive for wrong random ranges) \unexpanded\def\fakefigure {\dodoubleempty\dofakefigure} \def\dofakefigure[#1][#2]#3#4#5#6% {\getvalue{\e!place\v!figure} [#1][#2]% {\freezerandomseed \let\endstrut\relax \let\begstrut\relax \doifinsetelse{#1}{\v!left,\v!right} {\fakewords{2}{4}} {\fakewords{4}{10}}}% {\doifinset{#1}{\v!left,\v!right} {\dimen0=.75\dimen0 \ifdim\dimen0>.6\hsize \dimen0=.5\hsize\fi \ifdim\dimen0<.3\hsize \dimen0=.3\hsize\fi}% \framed [\c!width=\dimen0, \c!height=\dimen2, \c!frame=\v!off, \c!background=\v!color, \c!backgroundcolor=fakeparindentcolor] {\bf\white#1}}% \defrostrandomseed} I'll upgrade that module anyhow (e.g we need random footnotes for thomas and random font features for idris) ... then we can have a competition for the smallest set of commands that generates the nicest thesis. Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | voip: 087 875 68 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

I'm with Mikael in that natural tables is one of the things that has made a real difference to my ConTeXting, and I no longer hesitate with adding tables to the my documents. My current favourite is probably \usemodule, especially \usemodule[simplefonts]. Being a Windows dummy and working mostly in a standard (M$) Office environment, the Simplefonts module has taken a lot of sweat out of coding. In my non-working life as a half-professional craftster and budding publisher I'm learning to enjoy playing around with \setuplayout; the learning curve is sometimes pretty steep, but it still beats fiddling with Word because once you get something right, it stays right. :-) Mari

On 31-1-2012 09:34, Alan Braslau wrote:

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 07:55:51PM +0100, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

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Hi all,

to bring some traffic to the list I have a question where I hope even non regulars send a answer. The ConTeXt package is huge and provides dozen of commands but I guess many have *one* favorite command (maybe also functionality).

As I started this thread I’ll present my favorite command which is \donothing, it is a internal command and only a synonym for \empty but it’s one reason why I prefer ConTeXt’s coding style (especially with the recent changes in MkIV) over the unreadable LaTeX code.

Wolfgang

Not quite the same as \null: \def\null {\hbox{}}

there is \emptyhbox which for me is easier to grasp than \null ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | voip: 087 875 68 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

Am 31.01.2012 um 16:15 schrieb Philipp Gesang:

On 2012-01-30 19:55, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

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Hi all,

to bring some traffic to the list I have a question where I hope even non regulars send a answer. The ConTeXt package is huge and provides dozen of commands but I guess many have *one* favorite command (maybe also functionality).

Hi Wolfgang & Others,

my favorite feature maybe neither a command nor a macro as such: I’m especially fond of one “linguistic” feature that makes Context source code easily readable: the (often repeated) “do” prefix and “indeed” suffix in macro names. This way the majority of macros are to a certain extent self-descriptive, their names carrying a hint about the current nesting depth and the number of steps already executed before the macro itself is encountered.

A crude scripted scan of the directory context/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/ reveals the longest prefixed macro name to be “\dofinishregisterstructurepageregister” (not yet underscorified), and the longest suffixed one “\syst_helpers_inspect_next_parenthesis_character_indeed”. Finally, the macro “\dododododoGTC” has the most “do” prefixes of all.

I hereby declare these three my favorite macros, although I never read their definitions, let alone used them.

The second is part of the internals for \doifnextparenthesiselse.

Thanks for the clarity Philipp

PS: Anybody fond of “\@EAEAEAEAEAEA”?

The @ is a dying symbol in MkIV because the underscore has replaced it and there are now alternative names for these function, the one you mention can now be written as \tripleexpandafter. Wolfgang

Am 31.01.2012 um 16:15 schrieb Philipp Gesang:

On 2012-01-30 19:55, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:

...

Hi all,

to bring some traffic to the list I have a question where I hope even non regulars send a answer. The ConTeXt package is huge and provides dozen of commands but I guess many have *one* favorite command (maybe also functionality).

Hi Wolfgang & Others,

my favorite feature maybe neither a command nor a macro as such: I’m especially fond of one “linguistic” feature that makes Context source code easily readable: the (often repeated) “do” prefix and “indeed” suffix in macro names. This way the majority of macros are to a certain extent self-descriptive, their names carrying a hint about the current nesting depth and the number of steps already executed before the macro itself is encountered.

There are also variations of the prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes: - do - dodo - nodo - redo Suffixes: - indeed - ignore - yes - nop Wolfgang