Andre Poenitz wrote:
On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 06:11:17PM -0400, Richard Heck wrote:
(ii) Bo packs everything into the LyX file using base64 encoding; I put the
files in a subdirectory and then wrap the whole bundle into a zip file.
But that's just a confusion, and there's no real difference here. First: I
OPTIONALLY wrap the bundle into a single file. There is a real difference
between a "bundle"---that's just a LyX file with an associated
directory---and what we might call a "wrapped bundle", which is the single
file. Second: How we wrap the bundle is an implementation detail. If we
want to wrap it by base64 encoding everything, then we can do that. Or we
can use tar. Or whatever.
Base64 blobs have the distict advantage of retaining the possibility to
edit the .lyx file in a text editor - which I used to do quite often...
But Base64 blobs have the disctinct inconvenient that LyX will have to
read all embedded files itself. This will kill the file loading time if
we abuse such method. OK, we could organize the .lyx file so that all
blobs are at the end instead of when they are used (this would mean that
the file loading would have to be done in two parts) but LyX would have
to read these files nonetheless and it does not right now for most of
them; and when it does, it does it asynchronously (graphics), you can't
beat that, can you?
So I think base64 embedding is fine for small files like icons or logos
but zip should be the preferred method for anything bigger.
Abdel.
