> > - XML format. this is not a real problem since I have shown that a basic
> > utility to write LyX files could be written in less than one day. I
> > think they will trust me if I say that we could export our LyX files to
> > some XML format in a few day. Anyway I really think that the current
> > format is strange ('end float' is not the same as 'end float ' !!) and
> > XML would be an EASY and FASHIONABLE replacement.
>
> You are not alone in thinking this; it comes up frequently (I proposed
> it once). There is quite a high level of support for the general idea,
> but the core developers don't see it as a high priority --- so it's
> most likely to happen if some interested third-party (like me, if I
> had more time) does the grunt work!
Basically as far as I see the problem is that the current LyxLex class
that does the parsing is not set up to do the parsing for XML, it is
suitable to parse text with keywords and data interspersed but the extra
work for XML is not there and is harder to add as it stands.
I believe that the Table Inset is now done with XML and even though it's
been some time since I looked at its code I believe it was harder to do
then the current style format.
I think that the whole parsing bussiness should be redone into a better
parser and quite possibly a more unified approach where the insets (and
other global parts) will register their keywords in some way upon program
start and the parser will dispatch calls to c-tors and build the whole
document representation from the file representation. This will give a
more uniform treatment of errors as opposed to the current method where
each module handles anything (if at all) in its own way with its own error
messages.
But all of this requires first a better more concrete idea. If the
decision will be to do an XML format, which I see no reason not to do, a
complete restructuring of the parsing process may well be in place.
As I have time on my hands (and am unable to work on InsetGraphic yet) I
might as well sit down to see if I can provide a more concrete design
idea.
