On 12/19/2012 04:55 AM, Steve Litt wrote: > I disagree. At least some of us are now discussing the possibility > of formatting native LyX as standard XML, which, as I said in another > post, is human hostile. Many, many of us interact with LyX files > outside of the LyX executables or utilities. > > These users have an incredible interest in the native format of LyX. > Don't think for a minute this is a developers only issue. > > What I find the biggest insult is the motivation for this possible > disenfranchisement of LyX users dedicated enough to interact with LyX > files in nonstandard ways. That motivation? To accommodate Word > weenies. You've got to be kidding. Is this what free software has come > to? > > Perhaps the most ironic thing is that if full XMLitization comes to > pass, you know what I'll use Nico's XML converter for? To export my 7 > LyX-authored books to XML, from which I can convert them to plain-TeX. > > SteveT
If lyx changes to xml it will change to our xml defined format. We still have control of what we output. The argument regarding the readability of xml reminds of lots of code that I see on blogs or any other pages. When I am reading code I expect it to have a proper indentation, and if possible to be colored, with enough white spaces and new lines so that the structure emerges just from reading the code. Just because some code is legal from a language perspective it does not mean that we should use it. The same should happen for the lyx file format. If we go xml I expect that one of our goals is that output lyx file is friendly towards a line oriented analysis, I expect that it remains easy for us to diff two lyx files. The purpose of converting lyx to xml is to add other conveniences. For example, now how do you decide that a lyx files is well constructed? Is it to expect that it does not crash lyx? That a roundtrip from loading and saving the file gives the same output? Summarizing: if we go with xml the purpose is not to waste all the knowledge that we had accumulated in the last 17 years but to build over it. -- José Matos
