[CLUE-Tech] Sean's questions from Scribus presentation

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 09-16 18:50, Matt Gushee wrote:
> Hi, all--
> 
> During my KISS session the other night, Sean LeBlanc asked a couple of
> good questions which I declined to answer at that time, since they
> weren't directly relevant to the topic. Since I didn't get a chance to
> talk to him either, here are the answers:
> 
> (Sean, I'm assuming you're still on this list. If not, let me know. Uh,
> wait a sec ... well, let me know if you are;-)
> 
> 
> Q: What's ConTeXt? Where can one get more info about it?
> 
> A: ConTeXt is a general-purpose TeX macro package. By "general-purpose,"
>    I mean that it is useful for producing a wide variety of documents,
>    especially large ones. In some ways ConTeXt is an alternative for
>    LaTeX, but in my opinion LaTeX is still best for scientific and
>    mathematical texts, whereas ConTeXt is better for non-technical
>    works. I find that it is easier to implement my own design ideas in
>    ConTeXt than in LaTeX. Also notable: ConTeXt has built-in support for
>    XML source files, and there is an extension package for processing
>    DocBook XML.
> 
>    Like most things in TeX, ConTeXt has a substantial learning curve, so
>    it's probably not worthwhile to just play around with it. But if you
>    get the ConTeXt manuals, they are of course produced in ConTeXt, so
>    they'll give you an idea of what you can do with the system before
>    you dive in.
> 
>    ConTeXt is bundled with teTeX, but it's a very old version and not
>    properly configured, so I wouldn't suggest trying to work with it.
>    The latest version and documentation are available at:
> 
>      <http://www.pragma-ade.com/>

Yup, I'm on here. Thanks for the info. It figures; I just bought a LaTeX
book a while ago. Partly because I wanted to dabble a bit in things related
to Knuth after reading "Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talk About" in
which he talks a lot about typesetting (well, and a lot about Lutherans, God,
etc.). 

But I guess my interest in LaTeX/TeX goes back further than that - it
started when I was getting immensely frustrated with editing my resume in
Word. At one point, I had a template that looked really nice but the problem
was getting the bullet points sized right (harder than it sounds if Word
makes up its mind about that. Hard to explain in email, but if you've ever
seen Word do this, you'll not soon forget it). I got by with this template
for years - but rarely had to edit it. And besides, the economy was so
insane for most of that time that I could have used crayon and wrote it on a
napkin and got hired, as long as I spelled "Oracle" or "PowerBuilder" or
"Java" correctly. :) Anyway, being laid off first for 2 months, then later
for 6 months, I had plenty of time to ponder things and since headhunters/HR
were getting more picky and expected you to tailor your resume/cover letter
to them, I found myself in Word a lot more than I wanted to be. 
 

I tried Lyx, but I didn't get very far with it. So I staggered along with
Word for a while longer. But the promise of editing the content and not
messing with the layout was really alluring...and I eventually found this
site: http://www.syntaxerr.org/~daniell/resume/ 

This is a nice set of scripts where Latex goes in, and PDF, HTML, PS, & text
comes out.


I am able to hack together a decent looking resume with this and send off in
PDF. For the headhunters/HR staff who are for some reason recruiting for
tech positions, but can't open anything but Word, I can import HTML format
into Word and cleanup. A lengthy but worthy process, even if it makes me
grind my teeth that I have to work so hard to get my resume past some of
these dolts.  But there were still a few nits (some spacing issues), and I
was hoping to understand how all this fit together so I could get some more
control.  So a little over a week ago I bought a book on LaTeX. Then you
tell me ConTeXt is better for non-technical works.  ;)

 
> Q: Where did you get all those nice fonts?
> 
> A: Well, I bought most of them. I think you have to if you're serious
>    about publishing or typesetting. There just aren't that many really
>    good free fonts available.

<snip>

Again, this question sorta related back to my interest in creating a
nice-looking resume, and if need be, other works as well. The font that my
resume comes out in on PDF looks nice (to me), but I wonder what else is out
there, especially if you drop a little money on it. 


And sorry I didn't get the chance to talk afterwards, I had to take off. I'm
starting a new job in about a week, and all the related work and excitement
has been a little draining. I was exhausted on Tuesday.


Cheers,

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at comcast.net  
C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when 
you do, it blows away your whole leg. 
-Bjarne Stroustrup