Actually, I go back to IBM 370/155 days, the first computer for which I wrote programs, and the language was APL. Heck, I have a PDP 11/34a with core and a 2.9BSD license. And, just to state my political position, FreeBSD is the real thing and wish it had taken root instead of Linux. On the other hand, I am much more open to other operating systems, and list among those I have used the oddities like Irix, and the strange extensions of C to be found in the VAX world.
As for the use of LyX, I made merely an observation of behavior, and gave counsel (apparently rejected) as to the value of changing the behavior of a tool. I am all for leaving the behavior as is, with the caveat that it be documented, so that others will know of this limitation in interfacing, between operating system behavior and tool expectation. That you find it insulting suggests a degree of intolerance warranting others to curb their offerings of observations. Is that really what you want? As to the paper, I did mention not long ago that I had no more questions. It might have occurred to you that my reason for having no more questions is that I have largely completed the task set, producing the paper, and finding myself now in minor changes to font character, like boldness, and italics, and slant (don't understand the difference with italics), etc. Still have not found strike-though, nor underscore (these go the length of a field of characters, like a word, a sentence, or a paragraph, such as you typically find in the text of laws to be changed by the initiative process, with strike-through indicating text to be deleted). But, I don't need these; just notice that they are not in the same place as the bold, italic, etc. This means that Ventura Publisher remains useful to me when in the Windows world, and LyX remains useful to me in the Windows world. Finally, I have been building my computers since the 1970s, and when I want more than one operating system on a box, I use removable hard drives. Would prefer the high dollar stuff, hot swappable and all that but, powering down, swapping a bay, and powering up is a good alternative to layers and layers of abstraction software. Makes my life simpler. The only reason that I used LyX on Windows is that you make it an offering. I could easily have used it on another computer, one with FreeBSD or Linux (some redhat variation). I am reminded of the biblical warning, of not casting pearls. wrb > -----Original Message----- > From: Rich Shepard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 2:35 PM > To: lyx-users@lists.lyx.org > Subject: RE: WRB - Observations > > On Sun, 30 Mar 2008, William R. Buckley wrote: > > > It is unreasonable to expect the entire Windows using community to > > avoid a mechanism that is part of the Windows operating system. > > However, William, I think it's reasonable to expect the > entire Windows using community to defenestrate to linux, > *BSD, even OS X or open solaris. > All open source projects have fits trying to work with > Microsoft's proprietary, patented, non-standards-compliant > way of doing things. Heck, even Microsoft's web browsers and > Word cannot be backwards compatible with their own former specs. > > I've heard and read all the reasons why one must remain a > Microserf. And, as far as I'm concerned, that's a personal or > business decision that's none of my business. However, if you > want to use open source applications built to open standards, > then understand that almost all of these were originally > build for linux or one of the *BSDs, those are the platforms > the developers use, and making them available to the Windows > world is a courtesy, not a requirement. I, as a linux user > for more than a decade, have to suffer from web sites and > Microsoft-specific data file formats that just don't play > nicely with any of the options available to me. However, the > developers of tools such as OpenProject do a fantastic job of > reverse engineering data file formats, and each release is > better than the one before. In the meantime, I live with > what's available to me. > > I'm confident that there is a current replacement for > Ventura Publisher that is designed for all the quirks, bugs, > and other "features" of Windows. > Perhaps that would better serve your needs. You might also > look at VMware's free offerings that will let you run a > virtual linux distribution on your Windows box, and use linux > versions of applications with that linux distribution. Or, > grab a live CD (Knoppix, Ubuntu, whatever) that will boot > linux on your machine, allow you to run linux apps and save > your work, then leave your machine totally untouched when you > halt it and remove the disk. > > Rich > > -- > Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D. | Integrity > Credibility > Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. | Innovation > <http://www.appl-ecosys.com> Voice: 503-667-4517 > Fax: 503-667-8863 > >
