I have been using a letter format and gradually improving the macro format and style each time I use it. It makes a lot of use of backgrounds to set elements on the page. I would like to improve some other elements. The target structure of a letter source would be as follows. \usemodule[lett-01] \setupletter [address=...\...\.., signature=Nigel King, thedate=\currentdate, ......] \starttext \opening Further to your ...... %main letter content
\closing[Yours ...,] \encl[...] \cc[...] \ps[...] \stoptext
A lot of this works quite well using the following typical "macros" in u-lett-01.tex typical parts of which are shown below ---------- \unprotect \def\setupletter{% \dosingleargument\dosetupletter} \def\dosetupletter[#1]{% \getparameters[letter@][#1]} Some other \defs.... \def\opening{ \definelayer [letter@layer@toaddress] \setlayer [letter@layer@toaddress] [x=\backspace,y=50mm] {\framed [height=37.6mm, width=89mm, frame=on, align={right,lohi}, strut=no, offset=overlay] {\getvalue{letter@toaddress}}} \setupbackgrounds [page] [background={letter@layer@toaddress}] }% end of opening \protect -----------
The main problems that I have follow; 1. \usemodule[lett-01] has to be \input u-lett-01 because the definitions are not recognized properly otherwise. "no macros found", I have not found any documentation on macros. I had a look at m-chart.tex but it was too long and complicated to get the simple idea from. Is there another 2. I cannot find a way of defining elements which are effectively in the running text like \openingline=Dear ..., in the setupletter because \getvalue{letter@opening} seems not to pick up the value. A similar problem occurs with closing which has a number of formatting constraints which deosn't want to be seen in the letter source. The only way I have been able to achieve the objective has been to use the following type of construct. In the source letter \signature[Nigel King] In the module \def\signature[#1]{\def\fromsig{#1}} \def\closing[#1]{\par\framed[width=\textwidth,frame=off]{\rbox{ \blank[2*big] #1 \blank[6*big] \fromsig\par}}}
Any help would be much appreciated.
On Thursday 21 November 2002 12:00 am, Nigel King wrote:
I have been using a letter format and gradually improving the macro format and style each time I use it. It makes a lot of use of backgrounds to set elements on the page. I would like to improve some other elements.
(snip)
You may find some useful ideas in Knuth's letterformat (see the TeXbook) and also in the TeXsis macros. I use a variant on letterformat for single letters and an amalgam of TeXsis and letterformat for form letters.
FWIW
John Culleton Able Indexers and Typesetters Rowse Reviews Culleton Editorial Services http://wexfordpress.com
This brings up an issue that periodically comes up, but I don't remember how this went the last time:
I would really love to have a section of the ConTeXt website where I could access a few sample documents and modules created by more knowledgeable users. I often find trying to figure out how to do something from the manuals a frustrating experience, and the samples that are available are too limited...
With respect to modules, I'm thinking basic things like letters, articles, books, and presentations.
Bruce
At 10:23 AM 11/21/2002 -0500, Bruce D'Arcus wrote:
This brings up an issue that periodically comes up, but I don't remember how this went the last time:
I would really love to have a section of the ConTeXt website where I could access a few sample documents and modules created by more knowledgeable users. I often find trying to figure out how to do something from the manuals a frustrating experience, and the samples that are available are too limited...
no problem, but someone should collect them, package them in a zip, and provide a nice readme on how to process them
With respect to modules, I'm thinking basic things like letters, articles, books, and presentations.
some day ... (will be part of another context gimmick to come)
Hans ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- information: http://www.pragma-ade.com/roadmap.pdf documentation: http://www.pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 06:40 PM 11/22/2002 -0500, Bruce D'Arcus wrote:
On Friday, November 22, 2002, at 05:31 PM, Hans Hagen wrote:
With respect to modules, I'm thinking basic things like letters, articles, books, and presentations.
some day ... (will be part of another context gimmick to come)
Don't tease Hans; what "gimmick"? :-)
a user interface to processing tex docs, based on pdf, controlled by a tex-applet; think of entering your letter text and data in a form, pushing a button and getting a letter back (this is just one application, we also use it to make enveloppes and alike); click and point layout options, etc; works quite well; to tease you again, this is just part of a bigger game -)
Hans
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- information: http://www.pragma-ade.com/roadmap.pdf documentation: http://www.pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Monday, November 25, 2002, at 11:58 AM, Hans Hagen wrote:
a user interface to processing tex docs, based on pdf, controlled by a tex-applet; think of entering your letter text and data in a form, pushing a button and getting a letter back (this is just one application, we also use it to make enveloppes and alike); click and point layout options, etc; works quite well; to tease you again, this is just part of a bigger game -)
Hmm...interesting indeed! Just to prod a bit more, though, what kind of UI, and entered into what kind "form"? I won't ask about the "bigger game" :-)
This may or may not be relevant, but any chance as you work on this stuff XML might enter the picture as an alternate coding approach?
Bruce
At 12:10 PM 11/25/2002 -0500, Bruce D'Arcus wrote:
On Monday, November 25, 2002, at 11:58 AM, Hans Hagen wrote:
a user interface to processing tex docs, based on pdf, controlled by a tex-applet; think of entering your letter text and data in a form, pushing a button and getting a letter back (this is just one application, we also use it to make enveloppes and alike); click and point layout options, etc; works quite well; to tease you again, this is just part of a bigger game -)
Hmm...interesting indeed! Just to prod a bit more, though, what kind of UI, and entered into what kind "form"? I won't ask about the "bigger game" :-)
i let tex generate a document with fields that a user can fill in; that way you get a platform independent interface; the submits this data to a servlet, which, based on the embedded request, takes some action; after a while a pdf doc is send back; the document is (yet) coded in tex (rather high level interface macros), the request specific scripts are coded in xml as is the whole environment in which this takes place; communication takes place in xml as well.
[i may add an xml user interface to the tex part as well, when i'm in the mood]
This may or may not be relevant, but any chance as you work on this stuff XML might enter the picture as an alternate coding approach?
xml already has entered the picture since we use it for processing tex and xml docs
Hans
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- information: http://www.pragma-ade.com/roadmap.pdf documentation: http://www.pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I try to run some plain MetaPost foo.mp file, which includes an \input graph command, through mptopdf, e. g. by the call `mptopdf foo.mp' fails. Check with texexec --mptex foo.mp shows
! Redundant equation. <to be read again> ; l.148 Ten_to0=1; Ten_to1=10; Ten_to2=100; Ten_to3=1000; Ten_to4=10000;
These are redundant, since the lines appear first in mp-form.mp and then are again loaded from graph.mp.
Is there a way to use mptopdf for conversion of plain/non-metafun MetaPost files, e. g. a switch for mptopdf?
Greetings Hartmut
The beginning of my files typically have something like this before the first beginfig();
input metafun ; input boxes;
verbatimtex \setupcolors[state=start] \setupencoding[default=texnansi] \setupbodyfont[pos,11pt,ss] \def\f#1{\framed[frame=off,align=middle]{#1}} \starttext \bf\ss etex
input graph init_numbers (textext(btex $-$ etex), textext(btex $1$ etex), textext(btex ${\times}10$ etex), textext(btex ${}^-$ etex), textext(btex ${}^2$ etex)); Fe_base := textext(btex $10$ etex) ;
When I try to run some plain MetaPost foo.mp file, which includes an \input graph command, through mptopdf, e. g. by the call `mptopdf foo.mp' fails. Check with texexec --mptex foo.mp shows
! Redundant equation.
<to be read again> ; l.148 Ten_to0=1; Ten_to1=10; Ten_to2=100; Ten_to3=1000; Ten_to4=10000;
These are redundant, since the lines appear first in mp-form.mp and then are again loaded from graph.mp.
Is there a way to use mptopdf for conversion of plain/non-metafun MetaPost files, e. g. a switch for mptopdf?
I hope this helps it took me a long time to get the this point!
I (with help from many others) wrote the following code for iTeXMax compilation. For other systems ${iTMInput} is the basename of the metapost source file.
setenv TEX texexec mpost ${iTMInput} texexec --pdf --fig=c ${iTMInput}.[0-9] ${iTMInput}.[0-9][0-9] ${iTMInput}.[0-9][0-9][0-9] mv texexec.pdf ${iTMInput}.pdf
This produces the files to be referenced in a ConTeXt document and a pdf with all the pictures to review them.
Nigel
At 12:36 PM 11/29/2002 +0100, you wrote:
When I try to run some plain MetaPost foo.mp file, which includes an \input graph command, through mptopdf, e. g. by the call `mptopdf foo.mp' fails. Check with texexec --mptex foo.mp shows
! Redundant equation.
<to be read again> ; l.148 Ten_to0=1; Ten_to1=10; Ten_to2=100; Ten_to3=1000; Ten_to4=10000;
These are redundant, since the lines appear first in mp-form.mp and then are again loaded from graph.mp.
i'll send you a file for testing,
mptopdf --raw yourfile.mp
Is there a way to use mptopdf for conversion of plain/non-metafun MetaPost files, e. g. a switch for mptopdf?
mp to pdf will convert any mp output file into pdf
Hans ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- information: http://www.pragma-ade.com/roadmap.pdf documentation: http://www.pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Hans,
the mptopdf.pl --raw from your mail works perfect. Pure magic! (tested with teTeX-021116)
Thanks a lot!
Ah, one has to give the .mp extension explicitely. Otherwise it says MPtoPDF 1.2 : no filename matches foo.*
Greetings Hartmut
On Fri, 29 Nov 2002, Hans Hagen wrote:
At 12:36 PM 11/29/2002 +0100, you wrote:
When I try to run some plain MetaPost foo.mp file, which includes an \input graph command, through mptopdf, e. g. by the call `mptopdf foo.mp' fails. Check with texexec --mptex foo.mp shows
! Redundant equation.
<to be read again> ; l.148 Ten_to0=1; Ten_to1=10; Ten_to2=100; Ten_to3=1000; Ten_to4=10000;
These are redundant, since the lines appear first in mp-form.mp and then are again loaded from graph.mp.
i'll send you a file for testing,
mptopdf --raw yourfile.mp
Is there a way to use mptopdf for conversion of plain/non-metafun MetaPost files, e. g. a switch for mptopdf?
mp to pdf will convert any mp output file into pdf
Hans
At 05:55 PM 11/29/2002 +0100, you wrote:
Hi Hans,
the mptopdf.pl --raw from your mail works perfect. Pure magic! (tested with teTeX-021116)
Thanks a lot!
Ah, one has to give the .mp extension explicitely. Otherwise it says MPtoPDF 1.2 : no filename matches foo.*
right, the main purpose of mptopdf is the conversion, the mp processing is an extra
Hans ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- information: http://www.pragma-ade.com/roadmap.pdf documentation: http://www.pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 12:00 AM 11/21/2002 +0000, Nigel King wrote:
concerning modules, why not make it an environment?
- I cannot find a way of defining elements which are effectively in the
running text like \openingline=Dear ..., in the setupletter because \getvalue{letter@opening} seems not to pick up the value. A similar problem occurs with closing which has a number of formatting constraints which deosn't want to be seen in the letter source. The only way I have been able to achieve the objective has been to use the following type of construct. In the source letter \signature[Nigel King] In the module \def\signature[#1]{\def\fromsig{#1}} \def\closing[#1]{\par\framed[width=\textwidth,frame=off]{\rbox{ \blank[2*big] #1 \blank[6*big] \fromsig\par}}}
Any help would be much appreciated.
The best way to deal with variables is the following:
\setvariables [letter:opening] [name=..., date=...]
\setvariables [letter:closing] [name=..., whatver=...]
....
\getvariable{letter:opening}{name}
This way there is no need for the get parameter stuff and you can group your variables; this mechanism also bypasses the multi lingual inferface, since this is what is troubling you: getparameter remaps tags to the low level names. You get better error messages for free.
Hans ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- information: http://www.pragma-ade.com/roadmap.pdf documentation: http://www.pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Bruce D'Arcus -
Hans Hagen -
Hartmut Henkel -
John Culleton -
Nigel King