% language=us runpath=texruns:manuals/cld

\startcomponent cld-gettingstarted

\environment cld-environment

\startchapter[title=Getting started]

\startsection[title=Some basics]

\index{processing}

I assume that you have either the so called \CONTEXT\ standalone (formerly known
as minimals) installed or \TEXLIVE. You only need \LUATEX\ and can forget about
installing \PDFTEX\ or \XETEX, which saves you some megabytes and hassle. Now,
from the users perspective a \CONTEXT\ run goes like:

\starttyping
context yourfile
\stoptyping

and by default a file with suffix \type {tex}, \type {mkvi} or \type {mkvi} will
be processed. There are however a few other options:

\starttyping
context yourfile.xml
context yourfile.rlx --forcexml
context yourfile.lua
context yourfile.pqr --forcelua
context yourfile.cld
context yourfile.xyz --forcecld
context yourfile.mp
context yourfile.xyz --forcemp
\stoptyping

When processing a \LUA\ file the given file is loaded and just processed. This
options will seldom be used as it is way more efficient to let \type {mtxrun}
process that file. However, the last two variants are what we will discuss here.
The suffix \type {cld} is a shortcut for \CONTEXT\ \LUA\ Document.

A simple \type {cld} file looks like this:

\starttyping
context.starttext()
context.chapter("Hello There!")
context.stoptext()
\stoptyping

So yes, you need to know the \CONTEXT\ commands in order to use this mechanism.
In spite of what you might expect, the codebase involved in this interface is not
that large. If you know \CONTEXT, and if you know how to call commands, you
basically can use this \LUA\ method.

The examples that I will give are either (sort of) standalone, i.e.\ they are
dealt with from \LUA, or they are run within this document. Therefore you will
see two patterns. If you want to make your own documentation, then you can use
this variant:

\starttyping
\startbuffer
context("See this!")
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer
\stoptyping

I use anonymous buffers here but you can also use named ones. The other variant
is:

\starttyping
\startluacode
context("See this!")
\stopluacode
\stoptyping

This will process the code directly. Of course we could have encoded this
document completely in \LUA\ but that is not much fun for a manual.

\stopsection

\startsection[title=The main command]

There are a few rules that you need to be aware of. First of all no syntax
checking is done. Second you need to know what the given commands expects in
terms of arguments. Third, the type of your arguments matters:

\starttabulate[|||]
\NC \type{nothing} \EQ just the command, no arguments \NC \NR
\NC \type{string}  \EQ an argument with curly braces \NC \NR
\NC \type{array}   \EQ a list between square backets (sometimes optional) \NC \NR
\NC \type{hash}    \EQ an assignment list between square brackets \NC \NR
\NC \type{boolean} \EQ when \type {true} a newline is inserted \NC \NR
\NC                \EQ when \type {false}, omit braces for the next argument \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

In the code above you have seen examples of this but here are some more:

\starttyping
context.chapter("Some title")
context.chapter({ "first" }, "Some title")
context.startchapter({ title = "Some title", label = "first" })
\stoptyping

This blob of code is equivalent to:

\starttyping
\chapter{Some title}
\chapter[first]{Some title}
\startchapter[title={Some title},label=first]
\stoptyping

You can simplify the third line of the \LUA\ code to:

\starttyping
context.startchapter { title = "Some title", label = "first" }
\stoptyping

In case you wonder what the distinction is between square brackets and curly
braces: the first category of arguments concerns settings or lists of options or
names of instances while the second category normally concerns some text to be
typeset.

Strings are interpreted as \TEX\ input, so:

\starttyping
context.mathematics("\\sqrt{2^3}")
\stoptyping

and if you don't want to escape:

\starttyping
context.mathematics([[\sqrt{2^3}]])
\stoptyping

are both correct. As \TEX\ math is a language in its own and a de-facto standard
way of inputting math this is quite natural, even at the \LUA\ end.

\stopsection

\startsection[title=Spaces and Lines]

\index{spaces}
\index{lines}

In a regular \TEX\ file, spaces and newline characters are collapsed into one
space. At the \LUA\ end the same happens. Compare the following examples. First
we omit spaces:

\startbuffer
context("left")
context("middle")
context("right")
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer

Next we add spaces:

\startbuffer
context("left")
context(" middle ")
context("right")
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer

We can also add more spaces:

\startbuffer
context("left ")
context(" middle ")
context(" right")
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer

In principle all content becomes a stream and after that the \TEX\ parser will do
its normal work: collapse spaces unless configured to do otherwise. Now take the
following code:

\startbuffer
context("before")
context("word 1")
context("word 2")
context("word 3")
context("after")
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer

Here we get no spaces between the words at all, which is what we expect. So, how
do we get lines (or paragraphs)?

\startbuffer
context("before")
context.startlines()
context("line 1")
context("line 2")
context("line 3")
context.stoplines()
context("after")
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer

This does not work out well, as again there are no lines seen at the \TEX\ end.
Newline tokens are injected by passing \type {true} to the \type {context}
command:

\startbuffer
context("before")
context.startlines()
context("line 1") context(true)
context("line 2") context(true)
context("line 3") context(true)
context.stoplines()
context("after")
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer

Don't confuse this with:

\startbuffer
context("before") context.par()
context("line 1") context.par()
context("line 2") context.par()
context("line 3") context.par()
context("after")  context.par()
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer

There we use the regular \type {\par} command to finish the current paragraph and
normally you will use that method. In that case, when set, whitespace will be
added between paragraphs.

This newline issue is a somewhat unfortunate inheritance of traditional \TEX,
where \type {\n} and \type {\r} mean something different. I'm still not sure if
the \CLD\ do the right thing as dealing with these tokens also depends on the
intended effect. Catcodes as well as the \LUATEX\ input parser also play a role.
Anyway, the following also works:

\startbuffer
context.startlines()
context("line 1\n")
context("line 2\n")
context("line 3\n")
context.stoplines()
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer

\stopsection

\startsection[title=Direct output]

\index{direct output}
\index{verbose}

The \CONTEXT\ user interface is rather consistent and the use of special input
syntaxes is discouraged. Therefore, the \LUA\ interface using tables and strings
works quite well. However, imagine that you need to support some weird macro (or
a primitive) that does not expect its argument between curly braces or brackets.
The way out is to precede an argument by another one with the value \type
{false}. We call this the direct interface. This is demonstrated in the following
example.

\startbuffer
\unexpanded\def\bla#1{[#1]}

\startluacode
context.bla(false,"***")
context.par()
context.bla("***")
\stopluacode
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer

This results in:

\getbuffer

Here, the first call results in three \type {*} being passed, and \type {#1}
picks up the first token. The second call to \type {bla} gets \type {{***}}
passed so here \type {#1} gets the triplet. In practice you will seldom need the
direct interface.

In \CONTEXT\ for historical reasons, combinations accept the following syntax:

\starttyping
\startcombination % optional specification, like [2*3]
  {\framed{content one}} {caption one}
  {\framed{content two}} {caption two}
\stopcombination
\stoptyping

You can also say:

\starttyping
\startcombination
  \combination {\framed{content one}} {caption one}
  \combination {\framed{content two}} {caption two}
\stopcombination
\stoptyping

When coded in \LUA, we can feed the first variant as follows:

\startbuffer
context.startcombination()
  context.direct("one","two")
  context.direct("one","two")
context.stopcombination()
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer

To give you an idea what this looks like, we render it:

\startlinecorrection[blank]
\ctxluabuffer
\stoplinecorrection

So, the \type {direct} function is basically a no|-|op and results in nothing by
itself. Only arguments are passed. An equivalent but bit more ugly looking is:

\starttyping
context.startcombination()
  context(false,"one","two")
  context(false,"one","two")
context.stopcombination()
\stoptyping

\stopsection

\startsection[title=Catcodes]

\index{catcodes}

If you are familiar with the inner working of \TEX, you will know that characters
can have special meanings. This meaning is determined by their catcodes.

\startbuffer
context("$x=1$")
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer

This gives: \ctxluabuffer\ because the dollar tokens trigger inline math mode. If
you think that this is annoying, you can do the following:

\startbuffer
context.pushcatcodes("text")
context("$x=1$")
context.popcatcodes()
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer

Now we get: \ctxluabuffer. There are several catcode regimes of
which only a few make sense in the perspective of the cld
interface.

\starttabulate[|Tl|l|]
\NC ctx, ctxcatcodes, context   \NC the normal \CONTEXT\ catcode regime \NC \NR
\NC prt, prtcatcodes, protect   \NC the \CONTEXT\ protected regime, used for modules \NC \NR
\NC tex, texcatcodes, plain     \NC the traditional (plain) \TEX\ regime \NC \NR
\NC txt, txtcatcodes, text      \NC the \CONTEXT\ regime but with less special characters \NC \NR
\NC vrb, vrbcatcodes, verbatim  \NC a regime specially meant for verbatim \NC \NR
\NC xml, xmlcatcodes            \NC a regime specially meant for \XML\ processing \NC \NR
\stoptabulate

In the second case you can still get math:

\starttyping
context.pushcatcodes("text")
context.mathematics("x=1")
context.popcatcodes()
\stoptyping

When entering a lot of math you can also consider this:

\starttyping
context.startimath()
context("x")
context("=")
context("1")
context.stopimath()
\stoptyping

Module writers of course can use \type {unprotect} and \type {protect} as they do
at the \TEX\ end.

As we've seen, a function call to \type {context} acts like a print, as in:

\startbuffer
context("test ")
context.bold("me")
context(" first")
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer

When more than one argument is given, the first argument is considered a format
conforming the \type {string.format} function.

\startbuffer
context.startimath()
context("%s = %0.5f",utf.char(0x03C0),math.pi)
context.stopimath()
\stopbuffer

\typebuffer \ctxluabuffer

This means that when you say:

\starttyping
context(a,b,c,d,e,f)
\stoptyping

the variables \type {b} till \type {f} are passed to the format and when the
format does not use them, they will not end up in your output.

\starttyping
context("%s %s %s",1,2,3)
context(1,2,3)
\stoptyping

The first line results in the three numbers being typeset, but in the second case
only the number~1 is typeset.

\stopsection

\stopchapter

\stopcomponent

