What is the most minimal code to work with ConTeXt?

Question

TH. · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-13 06:41:17Z

up vote 9 down vote accepted

This is the most minimal. It just instructs TeX to stop.

\end

While I'm at it. It's also the most minimal code for plain TeX. For LaTeX, the best I could do is this.

\csname@@end\endcsname

I guess

\catcode`@11 \@@end

is shorter, but it's less minimal since TeX has to execute two commands instead of just one.

edited Jan 13 '11 at 6:41

answered Jan 13 '11 at 6:33

TH.
25.5k254122

	@TH `\stop` for LaTeX should be the shorter? – Yiannis Lazarides Jan 13 '11 at 7:11
	@Yiannis: Ah yes. Probably the shortest, but not the most minimal. It invokes the output routine. – TH. Jan 13 '11 at 9:22
	What about `\enddocument` in LaTeX? Probably also not minimal, since that requires an `aux` file present. – Konrad Rudolph Jan 13 '11 at 11:19
	@Konrad: That doesn't work. As you mentioned, it looks for `\jobname.aux`. – TH. Jan 13 '11 at 12:17

Leo Liu · Answer 2 · 2011-01-13 06:22:35Z

up vote 4 down vote

\starttext
Hello world.
\stoptext

or even simpler

Hello world.
\bye

answered Jan 13 '11 at 6:22

Leo Liu
34.9k276153

	Well, actually I'm not a ConTeXt user. wiki.contextgarden.net/First_Document – Leo Liu Jan 13 '11 at 6:25
	how about just `\bye`? – Yiannis Lazarides Jan 13 '11 at 6:30
	@Yiannis: In fact, there's no difference, right? I think the key is "work" but not "most minimal". The first example works as most ConTeXt ducuments, and the second one works as Plain TeX. – Leo Liu Jan 13 '11 at 10:29

2 Answers