Hello,
I'm copying your message and my response to the LyX developer list for
comment. I am just a humble document writer; I leave coding to people who
know what they're doing. However, I do want to comment on a few things
before I let them have at it ...
LyX is not the tool you are looking for. LyX excels at creating
publishable textual and mathematical documents (which may include figures,
of course) by serving as the front end for a markup language known as
LaTeX. LyX is not a page design tool; the page layout is done by LaTeX
which in turns calls TeX. If LaTeX cannot handle what you want to do, LyX
will not be able to do it at all.
#1: Again, LyX is WYSIWYM - What You See Is What You Mean - not WYSIWYG.
LyX gives you visual clues as to what the document will look like, not
actually laying it out that way.
#3: This may be doable with PSTricks, but certainly not "natively".
#10 and #12: These two points show exactly why LyX is not the right tool.
Guides, rules, and layers are completely antithetical to the markup
language approach that LyX (because of LaTeX) chooses to use. One marks
something as a "section" in LyX - you don't tell LyX how or where to place
that on the page.
#14: These are called Layouts and are fundamental to LyX.
There are a few good ideas here which is why I'm forwarding to the LyX
Developer list. However, if you are doing magazine page layout, LyX is
simply not the right tool for the job.
Mike
--
Mike Ressler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
OK, I'm lame: I don't have my own website ...
On Thu, 27 Jul 2000, Bodvar Bjorgvinsson wrote:
> Dear all of you fine people, who are doing such a good job and working so
> hard at the LyX project,
>
> I have been testing LyX from time to time since mid-winter and I like it a
> lot and even think it may become a real breakthrough, but I think it needs
> much more flexibility and new tools.
>
> What I have been looking for is a Linux replacement for Adobe PageMaker6.5
> (which I use a lot) or even QuarkXpress (maybe too much to ask for ;-) ).
>
> What I would see in LyX (or Klyx) and cannot see that you got, is:
>
> 1) Better WYSIWYG.
>
> 2) More scaling of fonts (e.g., above 72 points).
>
> 3) Slanting of a selection in various degrees (like if you have a 60 pt.
> text and select a word out of it, or even one letter and slant it some 30
> degrees back or forth).
>
> 4) Text boxes and/or text frames that can be linked so that the text flows
> from one box to another. The boxes need to be able to be set to accurate
> measure.
>
> 5) Object/picture boxes that can be set to accurate measures and where the
> object can be easily resized, slanted, cropped (read: partly hidden) etc.
>
> 6) Maybe some automatic linking to Gimp in order to work with objects.
>
> 7) Import of tables from Siag or some other spread sheet application
> (StarCalc, Quattro), either linked or direct if not both.
>
> 8) Color management (create color for filling etc).
>
> 9) Multiple master pages (to create different page formats within the
> publication).
>
> 10) Layers. 3-4 layers would be very handy to work with when you have to
> make a nice looking magazine page. :-) Or when you are working with
> complicated forms that need to be revised frequently: Lines and boxes in one
> layer, main text in another, and some other thing in the third. You really
> need this when you have a lot of text boxes, lines and other stuff that can
> be grouped and/or selected together and moved around.
>
> 11) Better line/box editor (or maybe there was none at all?)
>
> 12) Guides and Rulers (adjustable and possible to use from Master Page(s).
>
> 13) Insert pages at a given point. (Why should we need the M$Word approach:
> to fill in text and spaces or use hard brake for a new page?)
>
> 14) Possibility to make (easily) your own styles (style sheets).
>
> It seems to me that WP8 comes in some ways closer to the above requests than
> LyX does. However, I think it is wonderful to see a tool that is built from
> ground up as a professional tool sticking to strict rules. I am not familiar
> with LaTeX, but from what I have seen, LaTeX should not have much problem
> with most of these requests, that is, if it is as professional as stated. I
> have worked with the QuarkXpress and PageMaker (several verisions) as well
> as some specific typesetting machines (like the _old_ CompuGraphic
> PowerView10, which was a great breakthrough).
>
> I know what I would like to see here, but I am not enough acquainted with
> LaTeX or programming languages, to be able to imagine whether it is possible
> to make all these changes to LyX.
>
> 15) One more thing I would like to see, that PM does not have: ability to
> open (import or place) a ready made PostScript file for editing (either text
> or formatting).
>
> Well, isn't this a nice wish-list for Christmas?
>
> I mean no joke. IMHO, the only thing that has prevented many people from
> using PM instead of M$Word on the M$ platform is money. PM costs much more
> and the Quark is way out in price. I am sure that if you guys can come up
> with, not necessarily a free tool, but at least a very moderately priced
> one, a lot of people would go for it. It seems to me that you are even
> working on some of this just now.
>
> In the meanwhile, good luck with your excellent, ongoing job. Thanks!
>
> Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
>
> Akranes, Iceland
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
