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= UPDATES =
2018/08/09:
-> slight changes due to version change of Textadept (v9.6 -> v10.0), especially for changing themes
-> corrected some minor mistakes
-> in the future I will leave only the last three changelogs (updates) on this page
2018/07/13:
-> added a *preamble*
-> changed structure a little, for more fluid reading and navigation
-> minor updates to the main text
-> some TeX and LaTeX trivia and/or comparisons will be added in the future
Hopefully After reading this hopefully the readers (of which there seem to be a lot; from 0 to over 9000 views within 1.5 years [minus a dozen of my own previews :D]) reader will get a better understanding of what ConTeXt is, what its advantages and disadvantages are, also compared to other popular software, and how Textadept can be used to get the most out of ConTeXt regarding an efficient work-flowworkflow.
= Optional: Additional '''Textadept''' tweaks =
no edit summary
= Preamble =
Note that this page is a ''User talk'', which might differ from usual wiki-entries. In the end this page is meant to be of personal purpose. This means that there is no absolute truth to be found within this page. Experience might differ heavily from the expected results. Here I, ''Koenich'', will try to add as much info as I could gather on my way of learning, what I like to abbreviate ''CTX'', ConTeXt.
(Thanks to especially *''Donald Knuth''*, *''Hans Hagen''* and too many other coders and users to mention right here!)
[http://wiki.contextgarden.net ConTeXt] is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX TeX] macro package created and maintained by [http://www.pragma-ade.com Pragma ADE]. The recent version ''mkiv'' is widely extensible using [https://www.lua.org/ Lua].
[https://foicicagithub.com/orbitalquark/textadept/ Textadept] is a programmable text editor for Linux, Mac OSX and Windows, created and maintained by [https://foicicagithub.com/mitchell/ orbitalquark Mitchell]. It is fully extensible using [https://www.lua.org/ Lua].
= I: Quick setup = == I.C: Quick setup Setup ConTeXt == === I.C Step 1: Install / Update ConTeXt ===
Installation and update of ConTeXt work the same way. If you only want to update ConTeXt, you can go to point 3.
* Wait until the download / update is complete. Afterwards you can close the command prompt by entering <code>exit</code> and pressing <code>Enter</code>-key or by simply closing the window.
=== I.C Step 2: Add ConTeXt's executables folder to Windows search Path ===
'''Note''': you will need admin rights for this. On public machines for example you most probably won't be able to add ConTeXt to that machine's path.
* If a message like '''context' is not recognized as an internal or external command...'' appears, you should make sure that you added the correct location of ConTeXt's executables (context.exe) path to Windows' search path or re-try the operation by starting from Step 2.1.
== I.T: Quick setup Setup Textadept == === I.T Step 1: Install Textadept ===
1. [https://foicica.com/textadept/download/textadept_LATEST.win32.zip Download] and extract [https://foicica.com/textadept/ '''Textadept'''] to a folder of your choice.
2. Use <code>textadept.exe</code> from the extracted folder to start Textadept.
=== I.T Step 2: Tweak Textadept's settings ===
'''Note''' that almost all changes to Textadept are saved in the file <code>init.lua</code>. There is two of them, of which you should edit only one:
Save <code>init.lua</code> and restart Textadept once. After doing so you can add changes to Textadept's configuration files and press <code>F9</code>-key afterwards to save and load the changes without having to restart Textadept.
=== I.T Step 2.1: Bind a PDF build command into Textadept ===
2.1.1. Use Textadept to open your <code>init.lua</code> stored in <code>SYSDRIVE:\users\USER\.textadept\</code>.
2.1.6. When you have a popular PDF reader installed already, it should pop up at the end of the process and show the created PDF output. [https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html '''Sumatra PDF'''] is highly recommended for this.
=== I.T Step 2.2: Lexing (command highlighting & code folding) ===
A lexer is a file that defines command highlighting and code folding keywords. Textadept comes with a ConTeXt lexer. In order to be able to use command highlighting and code folding when writing ConTeXt documents, you have to bind those documents to the lexer. To do so
2.2.3. Open a ConTeXt document and check Textadept's status bar in the lower right corner. It should say '''context'''. If it says '''latex''' make sure it really is a ConTeXt file or repeat the procedure.
== Themes & editor font changes ==
* Learn more about snippets in Textadept's [https://foicica.com/textadept/api.html#textadept.snippets manual].
=ConTeXt's Textadept settings=
ConTeXt comes with configuration files (a lexer and a theme) for Textadept that can be found in <code>\ConTeXt\tex\texmf-context\context\data\textadept\context</code>. They can basically be copied from <code>context</code> folder to your <code>USERNAME\.textadept</code> folder. They might be the best choice for unexperienced users, yet there are some things to be taken into account before usage:
* The files are numberous and come within a strict structure that must not be changed. It might be difficult for users to understand the code and change settings. It might be more worthwile to create an own lexer for context. A good starting point for this is the context-lexer that comes with TA. It's located in the folder <code>Textadept\lexers</code>. Further help can be found in the [https://foicica.com/textadept/api.html#lexer lexer section] of Textadept's [https://foicica.com/textadept/api.html API manual].
=3rd party projects=
A ConTeXt module for Textadept is being developed at [https://github.com/stephengaito/ta-context-latex ta-context-latex].
Note though, that if you plan to use Textadept without LaTeX with ConTeXt mkiv only (recommended), then you might not need the package mentioned above as it comes with literally only a hand full of ConTeXt snippets. It also needs additional software to be installed (Textredux, ctags), so that it's almost more comfortable to create own ConTeXt snippets with the ease of Textadept (see above).
