On Tue, 23 May 2006 14:13:51 -0500 "David Neeley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Rich, > > I read nothing in Mr. Gonzalez' suggestion that would require that you > or anyone else "come down to that level." Adding the ability to create > a layout from the LyX GUI does not mean that you would lose any > ability for you to "roll your own." It might, though, encourage new > users to get going more quickly--and some of them will be interested > enough to learn how to dig deeper and get the additional power that > comes from mastering the nuts and bolts. > It will probably be much simpler to write a standalone tool/wizard for creating layout files. I am not sure how cleanly such a tool would integrate with the lyx interface. > I am by no means a completely "clueless newby"--yet I am new to LyX > and to LaTeX. Thus, I am in the earlier parts of the learning curve. I > believe that some ability to more easily operate from the LyX > interface to create or modify layouts would be a boon to faster > productivity. > > For example, I am now working on a document that should be a great > help in getting my next job. I am doing it in LyX simply to have > something that will cause me to continue to dig in and expand my > familiarity that much faster. However, dealing with little things that > should be easy to find is taking far longer than writing the document > itself. I can see that as I become more familiar with things, my > writing time should decline greatly, even compared to all the word > processors I am familiar with (which includes most of the ones you > have heard of over the past twenty years or so--part of my consulting > work over the years has included evaluation of software and hardware > tools for businesses and organizations of all sorts). > > My work has led me to believe that the word processing paradigm is > wrong for those actually interested in productivity with a > high-quality end result. When I have done technical writing > assignments, I have learned firsthand how many people screw up their > documents by not learning to use styles intelligently--leading to > major problems in doing version upgrades of documentation. In my view, > therefore, the LyX approach would enforce a more sensible practice, > making future revisions that much easier to deal with. That is, in > fact, why I began this process. > > That said, there are some fairly obvious things that could make life > easier for everyone--and Mr.Gonzalez' suggestion is a very major one. > That anyone might resent the idea of making things easier for the new > or casual user is unfortunate. However, this is a large reason that > LyX has not taken off far more than it has. > > David > > On 5/23/06, Rich Shepard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Tue, 23 May 2006, Enrique S Gonzalez Di Totto wrote: > > > > > I know adding such a feature must be quite a large undertaking, but > > > writing .layout files or even one single line of LaTeX code is too steep > > > a learning curve for the average Word user to ever climb. > > > > Then, perhaps, the average Word user should stick to that and not make > > any attempts to learn LaTeX, or even LyX. For those with learning > > disabilities, stick to what's available in shrink-wrapped packages for the > > Microsoft environment. Don't suggest that the rest of us come down to that > > level. > > > > Rich > > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > This Mail Was Scanned By Mail-seCure System > at the Tel-Aviv University CC. >
