Re: [AUCTeX] ConTeXt MkIV Support

[Tobias Berndt]

Hi,

> Just out of curiosity, what are the other common ConTeXt editors?

There aren't any, as I know. There is TeXMate (Mac OS) offering a lot of 
support within its dialogs: I tried it and I guess they just put all possible 
commands into this menu and one have to find the right command among of too 
much stuff. As most of "TeX editors", they often are more TeX environments 
(TexShop, TextMate, TeXWorks &c.). The "official" ConTeXt editor is Scite 
becauce it is recommended by Hans Hagen (the guy who developed ConTeXt). But I 
could't find any real support in it; maybe more a personal preference of Hans 
Hagen. As I know, there should be a support by Vi, also. But anyway, since no 
Emacs user would change the editor just for editing ConTeXt, it would be a deal 
to have a good ConTeXt support for Emacs. (1) Emacs is one of the major and 
standard editosr for working with TeX files, (2) ConTeXt community will grow, I 
assume.

> I wouldn't say this is a hack, it's just the right thing to do in order ...

It's from the Internet, of course :) As I told you: I am an editor not a 
developer and so, I am an Emacs user, not a programmer. If I need something 
new, I look in the web and put it into my .emacs and usually it works => that 
is my LISP knowledge! l fear, if you would see my .emacs, you'll get blind :)=

> Speaking for myself, I don't know what to ask!

Hm, easy: I think if ConTeXt users would have a similar comfort in editing 
their files like LaTeX users ... at the best level with the same commands! 
There a lot which already works: e.g. if I do C-c-f-e I got {\em } instead of 
\emph{} and that's good (coming from MKII support, I believe). Since ConTeXt IV 
can things a lot better for a direct XML export, many structures need to be 
closed after using, e.g. instead the command \section{Headline} we need:

\startsection[
  reference=sec:hd,
  title={Headline },
  ]

\stopsection

and that's a kind of cumbersome ... and it would be a big help to have a nice 
shortcut to do it. Or, if you want to use ConTeXts  proper XML export, you 
should edit a list

\startblabla
\startitem First \stopitem
\startitem Second \stopitem
\startitem Third \stopitem
\stopblabla

instead of

\begin{blabla}
\item First
\item Second
\Third
\end{blabla}

and so on. Many commands from MKII are just fine for MkIV. I think it is worth 
offering a standard ConTeXt MkIV support with Emacs.


Have a nice day,
tobber









Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Tobias Berndt
Technischer Redakteur

baramundi software AG
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-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Mosè Giordano [mailto:address@hidden
Gesendet: Freitag, 2. September 2016 16:33
An: Tobias Berndt <address@hidden>
Cc: auctex <address@hidden>
Betreff: Re: [AUCTeX] ConTeXt MkIV Support

2016-09-02 14:16 GMT+02:00 Tobias Berndt <address@hidden>:
> ... I could use the "context "compilation (instead of mkii "texexec") already 
> before via a hack:
>
> (add-hook 'ConTeXt-mode-hook (lambda() (add-to-list 'TeX-command-list
> '("ConTeXt MKIV" "context %t" TeX-run-TeX nil (context-mode) )) (setq
> TeX-command-default "ConTeXt MKIV") (setq TeX-save-query  nil )
> ))

I wouldn't say this is a hack, it's just the right thing to do in order to add 
another command (apart from the fact I suggest you to put in a 
`with-eval-after-load' instead of using a hook that is run every time you open 
a new ConTeXt file) :-)  The variable `ConTeXt-Mark-version' enables you to 
easily switch between the two Mark versions without further work on the user's 
side.

> If you guys need more input to improve ConTeXt MkIV support in AucTeX---just 
> ask (but since I have been working with ConTeXt just one year, I'm just a 
> little more than a newbi. Hackers you'll find at contextgarden). Since I am a 
> writer not a hacker, I cannot contribute any code, sorry!

Speaking for myself, I don't know what to ask!  I don't know what are the needs 
of ConTeXt users editing their code with AUCTeX.  My very broad question would 
be: what do ConTeXt users want in AUCTeX?  Even if I got good answers, I don't 
thing I'd be able to develop those features.  What we need are good developers 
that have an idea of what to do, and users to suggest more features.  Both 
categories are warmly welcome, but the first is more needed.

Just out of curiosity, what are the other common ConTeXt editors?

Bye,
Mosè