----- Original Message -----
From: "Micha Feigin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <lyx-users@lists.lyx.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 8:59 AM
Subject: Re: sixth release of LyXWinInstaller
On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:16:13 +0200
Micha Feigin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Mon, 9 Jan 2006 22:37:50 -0800
"Stephen Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Again, if it is in the texmf tree which is installed in a directory with
spaces its the problem of whomever installed it and didn't follow the >>
instructions. If
the bib file is in a local user directory (with spaces) and included by
the user browsing to it then it is very much a lyx bug.
I checked this on windows and I don't get any problem with a bib file
that is in a path with spaces (implicitly where the lyx file is in a file
with
spaces or explicitly where it is also in a subdirectory with spaces).
Did your test include a .bst file which is what Bo brought up?
http://bugzilla.lyx.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2186 Jan 03, 2006
"This is a BibTeX limitation. The solution is to copy the .bst files to the
temp dir before running LaTeX, as is done for .bib files, graphics etc."
SH: This refers to an earlier solution:
http://wiki.lyx.org/pmwiki.php/Windows/LyX136pre
13 July 2005
"Axel Rasche reported that spaces in the file path caused BibTeX to fail.
The adopted solution copies the BibTeX data base to the temp directory,
mangling its name in the process into something that's both recognizable
to the user and useable by BibTeX."
SH: Why is this indirect fix used instead of a more direct method? It has
to do with LaTex being a macro package for the underlying TeX engine
which is designed with the following behavior:
David Carlisle
Wed, 21 Nov 2001 21:03:33 -0000
"I'm sorry but this isn't really a bug but a feature of the underlying
TeX system. Although LaTeX uses a brace delimited syntax, this
has to expand to the primitive TeX syntax, and
\input
\read
and other TeX primitives take a space to terminate the filename.
\input this file
will input a file called this (or try to) and typeset "file", ..."
SH: So the recommended C:\texmf\bibtex\bst or, for custom files,
C:\localtex\bibtex\bst works because the TeX engine does not
encounter a space while traversing to the .bst file. So I think
C:\MyDocs\foo.bst would work, but C:\My Docs\foo.bst would
not because TeX doesn't find anything under C:\My
At least this is my understanding.
Browsing to a .bst file in C:\Mydocs ought to work. But if the user
doesn't read the documentation and places the .bst file in C:\My docs,
then browsing there won't work. If this freedom to misuse an option
is considered a bug, then it means LyX is responsible for compensating
for the user's failure to read the documentation in the first place, and so
LyX takes the place of that documentation with a specific error message.
If a user doesn't install Aspell (as per documentation) in C:\Aspell, then
the spellchecker option is still active and if a user clicks on it, there
isn't a specific error message generated: "Aspell needs to be installed to
C:\Aspell"
To be consistent, that would need to be considered a LyX bug also.
I think the freedom to misuse an option is not a bug in a program. I do
not think the Windows policy of exercising parental controls should
be (im)ported as a basic LyX guideline and the failure to do so is a bug.
Maybe I need an attitude adjustment, :-)
Stephen
