> Specifically, I am interested in the status of the GUI Independence Project.
> I have looked over the status report on your Web site, but I wanted to ask
> some additional questions:
The GUII project has been running for a very long time. Thoughts about the
project were floating around even before KLyX appeared. After KLyX, it
took a few attempts to find the right approach.
Now, my understanding is that LyX is approaching GUII in a technically
sound and scalable manner. The focus is to structure the code according to
the Model-View-Control design pattern. The Model corresponds to the LyX
core which handles the basic text data structure, the Control-code
that controls the user interaction, and which is shared across different
toolkit, and finally the View-code that creates and shows the GUI and
which is specific for each front-end. There has been a lot of work to
ensure that the View-code is minimal -- i.e. to allow sharing of
control-code between frontends.
In this manner, we can conclude that basically all dialogs in Lyx are
GUII, and well-done at that. The next tasks for GUII is the main
window. This window is composed of a menu, a toolbar, the work-area and
the status bar.
The main challenge at this point is the work-area. Some work has been done
in this area, such as implementing an abstract painter, but the task of
handling user interaction has yet to be tackled.
I see that as the last remaining mayor issue before LyX is truly GUII.
The problem at this point is developer time. The core developers that know
most about this aspect of LyX are tied up with professional work. Also,
these people have other things to tend to: Fix bugs in the core code,
and otherwise making sure that the core of LyX is being kept alive.
Therefore, it is very hard to estimate a completion date for the GUII
project. It is completed once the core developers have time to do it, or
some of the other developers with time on their hands take the dive in and
do something about it.
If somebody with the skills and the time works at the problem for a month
or two, we could have a complete beta GUII LyX. But don't hold your
breath.
> Regarding LyX overall, what are some of the features you think users will
> appreciate the most when they use this application?
1) The separation of content and display.
2) Easy to use.
3) Mature. LyX has been in production use for many years.
4) Powerful: It has all the components you need in a word processor,
except possibly automatic grammar. Partial feature list:
- The best math editor around
- The best tables around
- Spell-checking with ispell or aspell
- Thesaurus will come in 1.2.0
- Paragraph styles, including user definable
- Graphics
- Bullets, cross-references, table-of-contents, bibliography,
citations
5) LaTeX support comes in two ways: If you are a LaTeX expert, you can
exploit your knowledge. If you are LaTeX ignorant, you can still make
very beautiful documents.
> What's the biggest thing you want to change for LyX?
Introducing character styles. With these, the DocBook support can be
completed, and LyX will also become a killer DocBook word processor.
Greets,
Asger Alstrup
(Retired LyX core developer)
