On 2/05/2017 9:50 a.m., Enrico Forestieri wrote:
On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 12:41:40PM -0500, Scott Kostyshak wrote:I'm often asked by LyX users why LyX behaves in the following way: 1. Start math and type X to the power \alpha. 2. Inside the math inset, copy the contents. 3. Outside the math inset, paste. The text "X^{\alpha}" is pasted. The user seems to expect a math inset to be created and for it to contain X to the power alpha. The workaround is easy: just create a math inset before pasting (or in this case, select the entire math inset instead of its contents). However, enough users have asked me about this behavior and expressed their confusion, and I realized I don't know why we do it this way, since it seems uncommon that the user would actually want the LaTeX "X^{\alpha}". I understand if pasting outside of LyX, we need some plain-text representation, but when inside LyX, would it make sense to always create an inline math inset (e.g. even if the copy was made inside a display equation) and paste the contents in it? Is there a missing feature here?No, this is actually a feature. This allows you to overcome shortcomings of lyx that do not allow to otherwise obtain what you can directly get with latex. For example, suppose that you create a 3x3 matrix but want to increase the space between rows. You can achieve this by copy and pasting the matrix ourside math, obtaining: \begin{array}{ccc}a & b & c\\x & y & z\\1 & 2 & 3\end{array} now you can add the wanted space like this: \begin{array}{ccc}a & b & c\\[1ex]x & y & z\\[1ex]1 & 2 & 3\end{array} Now you copy the text, select the original matrix and paste over it. This is also the way you can change invisible elements such as \kern. Please, don't touch it.
+1 (although this may be a subtlety that is lost on the `average user'). Andrew --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
