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=== What is ConTeXt? ===
:It ConTeXt is a document production system , based on Donald Knuth's [http://www.tug.org/ TeX], for typesetting high-quality documents. It More specifically, it is both: :* a set of high-level macros written in the (somewhat arcane) TeX language, and these macros simplify the task of designing layouts, making hyperlinks, etc. :* and a set of software and tools for moving from these macros to high-quality digital documents.: Unlike familiar word processors where the formatting of the final document is crafted while writing the content, ConTeXt documents are written without formatting, in plain text, using a macro language. This means that the document's content can change independently of its formatting and vice versa. :; Features : ConTeXt supports colors, configurable page backgrounds, hyperlinks, presentations, figure-text integration, cross-references, bibliographies, indices, typesetting for [[Chemistry|chemistry]] and [[Command/unit|physics]], [[Modes|conditional compilation]], non-latin languages, and [[Imposition|binding and imposition]]. :; Graphics : ConTeXt integrates a superset of [[MetaPost]] called [[MetaFun - MetaPost in ConTeXt|MetaFun]], which allows drawing page backgrounds and ornaments. :; Internationalization : ConTeXt provides a multi-lingual user interface with support for markup in English, Dutch, German, French, and Italian and support for output in many languages including western European languages, eastern European languages, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. :; Compatibility : ConTeXt supports TeX engines such as [[wikipedia:pdfTeX|pdfTeX]], [[XeTeX]], and [[LuaTeX]] without changing the user interface. :; History : ConTeXt was developed from 1990 by Hans Hagen from [http://www.pragma-ade.com/ PRAGMA Advanced Document Engineering] (Pragma ADE), a Netherlands-based company. See [[ConTeXt history]] for further details. :; Licensing : ConTeXt is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/free_software free software]. The program code (i.e. anything not under the <code>/doc</code> subtree) is distributed under the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GPL GNU GPL]; the documentation is provided under [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons Creative Commons] Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike license. :; Example : A simple ConTeXt document resembles: <context source="yes" text="This produces:">\setuphead[section][color=red] \starttext \section{Hello}World! \stoptext</context> :; Technical Details::: ConTeXt can be used to typeset complex and large collections of documents, like educational materials, user guides and technical manuals. Such documents often have high demands regarding structure, design and accessibility. Ease of maintenance, reuse of content and typographic consistency are important prerequisites.::: ConTeXt is developed for those who are responsible for producing such documents. ConTeXt is written in the typographical programming language TeX. For using ConTeXt, no TeX programming skills and no technical background are needed. Some basic knowledge of typography and document design will enable you to use the full power of ConTeXt.::: ConTeXt is parameter driven and the user interface supports several languages, like English, German and Dutch. This means that those less familiar with the English language can choose the interface that suits them best. Of course ConTeXt can typeset in many languages.::: Originally ConTeXt was written as tool for writing complex, constantly changing and extensive educational documents. Although much functionality originates there, ConTeXt has proven to be quite suitable to perform many other complex typesetting tasks. Some features are::::* automatic placement of figures, formulas, tables and other kind of floating bodies:::* automatic generation of lists of abbreviations, synonyms, and whatever needs to be sorted:::* automatic numbering of footnotes:::* adapting footers and headers to the current page content:::* extensive formatting of itemizations in many levels:::* consistent typesetting of legends to formulas:::* maintaining several registers, if needed with extensive interactive support:::* extensive cross-referencing capabilities:::* generating lists of used figures, tables, formulas and more:::* forcing rigourous consistency in emphasizing parts of the text:::* managing documents in a project environment:::* automatic placement of marginal notes:::* typesetting in more than one column:::* identifying textual elements in such a way that they can be hidden, moved and reused when needed (questions, answers, definitions, etc.):::* using text in more that one document, with a different layout if needed :::* automatic hyphenation of words as well as adaptation to language specific typographic needs:::* inclusion of illustrations in standardized formats from other applications:::* using color:::* easy change of layout, while guarding consistent typography:::* providing multiple tables of contents and lists, at all levels, to provide optimal accessibility:::* automatic numbering of definitions, lemmas and other structural components:::* automatic numbering of figures, tables, and other floating bodies:::* automatic makeup of tables and formulas ::: ConTeXt supports the PDF format and is able to directly produce highly interactive PDF files, using pdfTeX. All cross-references are automatically converted to hyperlinks. Such documents can be viewed and consulted with Acrobat. ConTeXt can provide all kinds of navigational aids that can be activated without programming. Electronic versions of documents thereby become very useful in educational settings. The potential of PDF is available to the user: complex forms and JavaScripts are no problem for ConTeXt. [http://www.pragma-ade.nl/ PRAGMA ADE] has developed ConTeXt in-house mainly to suit its own and customers' wishes concerning developing educational documents. Flexibility in layout, reuse of content, and maintenance are keywords.
=== How does ConTeXt versioning work? ===
: Basically, to help you find your way aroundIn short, there is are 3 majors versionsmajor version branches::* 1995: Context ConTeXt [[Mark II]], which defaulted to the pdfTeX engine, using good old TeX (but also supported ε-TEX, pdfTEXXeTeX, and Aleph), stable and now . Now in maintenance-only mode,.:* 2005: ConTeXt [[Mark IV]], using LuaTex TeX the LuaTeX engine,. This is the current stable version.:* 2019: ConTeXt [[LMTX]], using LuaTex TeX engine, the lean and mean successor of LuaTeX (see [https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb40-1/tb124hagen-lmtx.pdf article]). :There are 2 different development trees for ConTeXt, called Mark II and Mark IV (MkII, MkIV). They are always released together in a single package because they share a fair amount of code. MkII is stable and is in maintenance-only mode, MkIV is actively developed, including several enhanced features and completely new font handling.:There are 3 different typesetting engines that work with ConTeXt: pdfTeX, XeTeX and LuaTeX. MkIV works only with LuaTeX, MkII with any one of the engines (pdfTeX is the default). Font setups (typescripts) differ per LuaMetaTeX engine. :ConTeXt releases are identified by a time stamp, e.g. ''2010.06.23 12:45''. At most times, there This is both a ''current'' and a ''beta'' ConTeXt release package available. As explained above, both packages contain MkII and MkIV, the difference between ''current'' and ''beta'' is that the latter contains the unstable developments to MkIV for testing by power usersdevelopment version.:Since "betas" are declared "current" only a few times a year and no bugfixes happen for "currents" (Each of the releases in contrary to "stable" those major branches in many software projects), you’re mostly better off with beta. It also has some bugs fixed, bur mostly some new bugsan ISO timestamp that functions as a minor version number. If you need a really stable and reliable system and can’t wait a few days : See [[ConTeXt history]] for a fix, stick with MkIIfurther details.
== Starting with ConTeXt ==
=== Is there a hello-world document? ===
:Yes. See [[First Document]] and [[Hello worldDetailed Example]].
=== Is ConTeXt free (libre, open source) software? ===
=== Does ConTeXt support Unicode? ===
:Yes. It supports Unicode (UTF-8). In [[XeTeX]] and [[LuaTeX]] it is the default input encoding, while you need to use <{{cmd>|enableregime</cmd>}}<tt>[utf-8]</tt> command when working with [[pdfTeX]]. See also [[Encodings and Regimes- Old Content]] (This needs a bit of elaboration!)
=== Why should I only use letters, digits and hyphens in file/path names? ===
=== How can I get a horizontal space with a defined width, so as ex. "\hspace{3em}" or "\hspace*{3em}" in LaTeX? ===
:A horizontal space can be inserted with the TeX-Primitive <code>\hskip〈dimension〉</code> or with the ConTeXt command <{{cmd>|hspace</cmd>}}<tt>[identifier]</tt>.
=== Why is there a line-break in the output after some commands? ===
=== Does $$...$$ work for display math, like in (La)TeX? ===
:No; the spacing above and below the equation will be wrong, and maybe other aspects too. Instead use <{{cmd>|startformula</cmd> }} and <{{cmd>|stopformula</cmd> }} (just as one rather generally prefers to use <{{cmd>|begin{equation}</cmd> }} and <{{cmd>|end{equation}</cmd> }} in LaTeX).
=== How do I get a numbered equation? ===
:Add <{{cmd>|placeformula</cmd> }} before the <{{cmd>|startformula</cmd>}}.
== Misc ==
:You don't need any special package (like prosper or seminar in LaTeX) to make a presentation. In contrast to LaTeX, changing the document size, changing colors, adding hyperlinks, ... appears to be extremely simple in ConTeXt. See [[Presentations]] for more specific topics.
[[Category:Basics]]
