On 05/22/2018 06:57 PM, Hal Kierstead wrote:
> Is there a place were one can read the requirements for a LaTex file
> to import correctly? For instance most files I receive from
> collaborators do not have the theorem definitions in the right form.
Others can perhaps chime in on this, but I think the issue has to do
with what theorem environments are defined in the various
theorem*.module files. Certainly if your collaborators used the theorem
definitions from those files, then all would be well; and it may be that
you could define your own module, with whatever definitions your friends
use, and that would work. But I don't know.
> I think LyX is a great tool, both for learning LaTex and doing serious
> writing. However none of my 70 coauthors have used it, and except for my
> current students, I know of nobody in my department who uses it. I think the
> greatest obstacle to wider use is that Tex2LyX does not work reliably. By the
> nature of the task, Tex2LyX is trying to convert files that were not written
> for LyX, so requiring special forms of LaTex devalues the program. When I
> collaborate I end up using LaTex instead of LyX most of the time or using LyX
> to create LaTex segments to cut and paste. One of the first big advantages of
> LyX is that you get structure for your document with numbered theorems, etc.
> It would be nice for demonstration/advertising purposes if this always worked.
Unfortunately, there's no way that tex2lyx can understand arbitrary
constructs, so we will always be limited somehow. People using LaTeX
will sometimes do things like:
\def\begq{\begin{quote}}
\def\endq{\end{quote}}
We can't possibly figure that out in the tex2lyx code.
The truth is that even exporting a LyX file to LaTeX and then
re-importing that same file (what we call "roundtrip") won't always give
you the same file back again. It's a goal to have this work, but even
then it is not easy. So, in all honestly, we would not advertise that
LyX allows one to collaborate with someone using raw LaTeX. We even
discourage trying to collaborate with someone using a different major
version, e.g., 2.2.x vs 2.3.x, largely for the same sort of reason: the
need to use ERT to handle new constructs in the lower version.
All that said, improving tex2lyx is always a goal, so specific bug
reports are always welcome.
Riki
