It is probably my lack of brain cells, but I do not understand chapter 2 of the ConTeXt manual at all.
Suppose I have a manual-like document and I want to produce different PDF-files out of it:
1. The book 2. The book in another layout 3. The book in screen format with navigation 4. A simple presentation with bullet points, one or more pages per chapter
As I understand it I will need 4 environments:
.../foo/bookenv.tex .../foo/book2env.tex .../foo/bookscreenenv.tex .../foo/presentation.tex
and I can put each chapter in a component file, i.e. chapter1.tex, chapter2.tex etc.
.../foo/chapter1.tex .../foo/chapter2.tex
But here my understanding stops. - Should I create a project file for each of the 4 modes above? And put these in different subdirectories as in:
.../foo/book/book.tex .../foo/book2/book2.tex
etc.? Or do I use multiple environments in one project and I can get 4 PDF's as a result? Or are these multiple products (I would guess this, but how then to set it up)? Should my chapter files contain \startcomponent \stopcomponent and does that mean they are independently compilable?
I have been reading and re-reading this, but the relation between project, environment, component and product keeps escaping me.
Is there a good example somewhere?
Hi Gerben,
It is probably my lack of brain cells, but I do not understand chapter 2 of the ConTeXt manual at all.
Suppose I have a manual-like document and I want to produce different PDF-files out of it:
- The book
- The book in another layout
- The book in screen format with navigation
- A simple presentation with bullet points, one or more pages per
chapter
As I understand it I will need 4 environments:
No you can define modes in a single environment file. Later you can ask texexec to use one ore more of the defined modes.
texexec --mode=mode1 texexec --mode=mode1,mod5
.../foo/bookenv.tex .../foo/book2env.tex .../foo/bookscreenenv.tex .../foo/presentation.tex
and I can put each chapter in a component file, i.e. chapter1.tex, chapter2.tex etc.
.../foo/chapter1.tex .../foo/chapter2.tex
You can do this. It might be worthwhile to think about making the chapter a product, then you keep the possibility to add components if the size of the chapters is too large.
But here my understanding stops.
- Should I create a project file for each of the 4 modes above? And put
these in different subdirectories as in:
.../foo/book/book.tex .../foo/book2/book2.tex
No, use modes in the environment file.
etc.? Or do I use multiple environments in one project and I can get 4 PDF's as a result?
texexec --mode=mode-x --result=jobname-mode-x jobname
Or are these multiple products (I would guess this,
but how then to set it up)? Should my chapter files contain \startcomponent \stopcomponent and does that mean they are independently compilable?
Any level of the project can be compiled separatly. So you can compile a component, a product or the project.
I have been reading and re-reading this, but the relation between project, environment, component and product keeps escaping me.
The basic idea is not that complicated:
The project(file) is the cuboard The product(file)s are drawers of the cupboard The component(file)s are boxes in one of the drawers whithin the cupboard.
Teh environment is used to handle the whole project.
Is there a good example somewhere?
Whether is is a good example you will have to decide...
Success Willi
.../foo/bookenv.tex .../foo/book2env.tex .../foo/bookscreenenv.tex .../foo/presentation.tex
and I can put each chapter in a component file, i.e. chapter1.tex, chapter2.tex etc.
.../foo/chapter1.tex .../foo/chapter2.tex
You can do this. It might be worthwhile to think about making the chapter a product, then you keep the possibility to add components if the size of the chapters is too large.
I won't do that...
But here my understanding stops.
- Should I create a project file for each of the 4 modes above? And
put these in different subdirectories as in:
.../foo/book/book.tex .../foo/book2/book2.tex
No, use modes in the environment file.
Or use products if the content is very different.
Is there a good example somewhere?
Whether is is a good example you will have to decide...
Perhaps have a look at my ConTeXt tutorial (german), it uses the structure. Link below or directly http://www.ramm.ch/fiee/texnique/material/fiee_source.zip
Grüßlis vom Hraban!
On Tuesday, Jul 22, 2003, at 14:05 Europe/Amsterdam, Willi Egger wrote:
Hi Gerben,
The basic idea is not that complicated:
The project(file) is the cuboard The product(file)s are drawers of the cupboard The component(file)s are boxes in one of the drawers whithin the cupboard.
Teh environment is used to handle the whole project.
Is there a good example somewhere?
Whether is is a good example you will have to decide...
<project.tex>
This helped, but I am not there yet. I would like to think of this in a more concept-oriented idea
A project contains all products created from the same sources
A product us something that could ship separately. Hence a chapter is generally not a product but a presentation versus a booklet is.
A component is something with which you build products. You do not ship these separately, but you may work on them separately. The chapters of a book are natural components for me. I will never ship chapter1.pdf but I might want to work on my book one chapter at a time.
In your example, a chapter is a product. You produce different what I would call `products' by using different modes.
That is confusing for me. Never mind the cupboard and drawers, I am writing a book, in final, concept, screen formats as well as a presentation. So, I would say, presentation and book are two different products and final, concept and screen are different modes for product book.
And as an extra, I would like to use a good directory structure. But the way ConTeXt searches, my product files need to be deeper nested than my chapter sources. This is OK to me, but then the whole project file loses its role because there has to be a copy of this in each subdirectory.
I am writing this, so ConTeXt experts can see the kind of confusion a newbie like me can end up in.
One more thing. ConTeXt relies heavily on texexec. Giving different flags to texexec might be easy from the command line, but many frontends have fixed typesetting commands you can choose from (e.g. pdflatex and texexec --pdf). Having a different texexec call depending on what you want may not be compatible with using a gui frontend, unless the frontend enables setting a call per file (which makes it a complicated frontend). I know I can set texexec stuff in teh first line of a file, but I r ather not do that because other programs try to do the same thing (we need a TeX-file preamble syntax, a bit like PostScript has).
G
I am so far almost completely happy with the following:
The top directory contains the layout file (s) and the main 'project file', and the litter TeX is producing. The project file invokes the products (say a textbook for the screen, a printed textbook, a solution manual, etc) which I put in separate subdirectories to keep them out of the way. I also set specific options for the products (invoke color for the screen stuff etc) in these product files only. The TeX sources for the actual texts are then separated into parts and chapters and sections within subdirectories of the main directory. This allows me to work on a small portion of the project by working always in small directories, and keeping the figures together. I can also modify a product relatively easily by changing its 'styles' without affecting other products. So a product is for me an entity with coherent style and content. Products can share TeX sources and differ by style, or they can share styles by use different sources.
My only complaint so far: As far as I understand it, context requires full path names relative to the main directory. But probably I haven't figured it out yet...
Matthias
On Tuesday, July 29, 2003, at 09:44 AM, Gerben Wierda wrote:
On Tuesday, Jul 22, 2003, at 14:05 Europe/Amsterdam, Willi Egger wrote:
Hi Gerben,
The basic idea is not that complicated:
The project(file) is the cuboard The product(file)s are drawers of the cupboard The component(file)s are boxes in one of the drawers whithin the cupboard.
Teh environment is used to handle the whole project.
Is there a good example somewhere?
Whether is is a good example you will have to decide...
<project.tex>
This helped, but I am not there yet. I would like to think of this in a more concept-oriented idea
A project contains all products created from the same sources
A product us something that could ship separately. Hence a chapter is generally not a product but a presentation versus a booklet is.
A component is something with which you build products. You do not ship these separately, but you may work on them separately. The chapters of a book are natural components for me. I will never ship chapter1.pdf but I might want to work on my book one chapter at a > time.
In your example, a chapter is a product. You produce different what I would call `products' by using different modes.
That is confusing for me. Never mind the cupboard and drawers, I am writing a book, in final, concept, screen formats as well as a presentation. So, I would say, presentation and book are two different products and final, concept and screen are different modes for product book.
And as an extra, I would like to use a good directory structure. But the way ConTeXt searches, my product files need to be deeper nested than my chapter sources. This is OK to me, but then the whole project file loses its role because there has to be a copy of this in each subdirectory.
I am writing this, so ConTeXt experts can see the kind of confusion a newbie like me can end up in.
One more thing. ConTeXt relies heavily on texexec. Giving different flags to texexec might be easy from the command line, but many frontends have fixed typesetting commands you can choose from (e.g. pdflatex and texexec --pdf). Having a different texexec call depending on what you want may not be compatible with using a gui frontend, unless the frontend enables setting a call per file (which makes it a complicated frontend). I know I can set texexec stuff in teh first line of a file, but I r ather not do that because other programs try to do the same thing (we need a TeX-file preamble syntax, a bit like PostScript has).
G
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Hello Matthias,
My only complaint so far: As far as I understand it, context requires full path names relative to the main directory. But probably I haven't figured it out yet...
As far as I can see, there are two ways to include the products:
a) as you said with path names directory/productname
b) on web2c systems via the TEXINPUTS environment variable.
I am looking for a third (...) way as well
Patrick
At 17:55 03/09/2003 +0200, you wrote:
I am looking for a third (...) way as well
what direction?
(i'm thinking of a database option)
Hans
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Hans Hagen pragma@wxs.nl writes:
Hello,
I am looking for a third (...) way as well
what direction?
(i'm thinking of a database option)
I didn't know of the \usepath and \usesubpath (what is the difference?). So I've got my third.
Patrick
-
Gerben Wierda -
Hans Hagen -
Henning Hraban Ramm -
Matthias Weber -
Patrick Gundlach -
Willi Egger