Re: Org to ConTeXt exporter?

[Jonathan McHugh <indieterminacy@libre.brussels>]

Hello Juan,

Thanks for validating my suspicions re Latex and Context.

One area I used a lot was with regards to Tikz. I will have to make many
detours before I get the chance to adapt bespoke Tikz projects to to
something more generic and action from org-mode. Hopefully by then the
choice of an outputting document management system will be less of a
consideration.

I half suspect that the Context author (Hans Hagen) focusing on Metapost
allowed the Context community to not value Tikz so much (transposing the
Tikz manual to Context would be a great win IMHO).

Checking in on Context I see that they have a new generation:
https://wiki.contextgarden.net/LMTX

Im sure there will be some scripts which will need updating given
updated conventions. Im pleased that that the project still has momentum
and look forward to investigating what this means.

A Guix user, it saddens me that it is not packaged properly (time, time,
time) - especially given the LMTX shift.

Broadening the topic, I wonder whether the wider stemming of Tex derived
products should be approached with as much of the equivalent encapsulation as
possible. New to the Emacs and Lisp world, I do not know whether suggesting
Org-Mode outputting Racket's Scribble or Guile's Skribilo is productive
or relevant (or trolling!).

More practically speaking, it is worth noting that Skribilo outputs
Context (in addition to Latex):
https://www.nongnu.org/skribilo/doc/user-38.html#context-engine

It is entirely possible that that community has resolved a lot of the
challenges the Org-Mode contingent is currently deliberating over.

Best wishes,


Jonathan



Juan Manuel Macías <maciaschain@posteo.net> writes:

> Hello, Jonathan,
>
> Jonathan McHugh <indieterminacy@libre.brussels> writes:
>
>> I have wondered about the interoperability between Context and Latex.
>>
>> As somebody who (previously) invested a lot of time into Latex, my migration to
>> Context (due to its emphasis on Lua) grew problematic once other commitments
>> grew.
>
> What I like about ConTeXt is its (let's say) avant-garde vocation. But
> for my everyday work I prefer LaTeX: more extensible, more versatile,
> even more documented. But we must accept that ConTeXt is also an
> advanced typographic laboratory where many functionalities also end up
> in LaTeX over time. In fact, as far as I know, the future LaTeX3 adopts
> some ideas from ConTeXt.
>
> On Lua, LuaLaTeX also has good support. And many new LaTeX packages are
> already getting very good use of LuaTeX features.
>
>> The lack of Context support in Org-Mode has made me consider reverting
>> back to Latex.
>
> I know some advanced ConTeXt users (I am not) who are very interested in
> migrating to Org Mode. In that aspect, I think a native exporter to
> ConTeXt would be of great help.
>
> Generally speaking, I think Org is the perfect interface to use TeX and
> friends. One of the things I like the most about Org Mode is that it
> allows working in (La)TeX at a very high level. Of course, for advanced
> use, the more you know about LaTeX and TeX, the better. For example, if
> I work on a large book, I usually write the entire configuration (the
> preamble, my macros, my LaTeX code, etc.) to an Org file, and then I generate
> a Preamble.tex file using tangle. I have a master file and several
> subdocuments for the parts and sections of the book. And I make heavy
> use of Org Publish. But in all that workflow, LaTeX is always in the
> background. It is mainly a matter of comfort: I love TeX and its
> derivatives, its power and its typographic refinement, but its language
> is very verbose and the sources are difficult to debug. Org mode is much
> more human readable. And even much more readable and comfortable than
> Markdown.
>
>> If I had a lot of time it would be wonderful to develop parsing
>> expression grammars to capture it all, irrespective of direction ... mmm time....
>
> Yes, time is the problem: I think TODO lists were invented to have a
> foot of mud in the future :-)
>
> Regards,
>
> Juan Manuel     


-- 
Jonathan McHugh
indieterminacy@libre.brussels