Re: Alternatives to Lyx?, was: Re: parallel.sty
On Mon, 2003-09-15 at 22:51, Michael Logies wrote: > At 23:58 15.09.2003 +0300, robin wrote: > > >Michael Chabon wrote: > > > >>Thanks for all the help, I got it installed and working, but it's just > >>too much of a pain. > >> > >>I will have to spend money for software, I fear. > > > > > >Well, LyX isn't for everyone - I happen to think it's the best thing since > >sliced bread, but if you want something more point-and-clicky, I'd suggest > >checking out Scribus before you splash out on an expensive DTP > >program. It doesn't have all the functionality of its commercial cousins, > >but it's getting there slowly. I'd still recommend persisting for a while > >with LyX, though - it kind of grows on you. > > I`m quite happy with Lyx now, though I still have some problems. But what I > write shall only become a thesis, I don`t want to sell it ;-) > > Is there anything else than Framemaker (for Windows), which is a real > alternative to Lyx (for Windows) for writing long documents in science? And > as I understood, Framemaker cannot work with long footnotes (Lyx can > continue them on the next page). > > Regards > > M. > -- > http://www.logies.de/ (u. a. _die_ Mailingliste für die Dentalbranche) > PGP-key (RSA/IDEA) kommt mit angeforderter Empfangsbestätigung (return receipt) Hi, Just one more opinion based on my experience. Last year my MSC coordinator told me he was going away an that I had to finish my thesis in 8 weeks. I end up with more or less one month to write it and I can assure you that if I had to use MSWord it would be impossible. Besides the problems with size, which growth exponentially if you have a lot of maths and figures. The way LyX deals with cross references and citations speeds up your work very much. Also the way it deals with figures drives you to do your figures properly, instead of leaving it half done and than try to fix it in edit mode inside MSWord. All the WYSIWYM stuff (no double spaces, no double lines, etc) helps very much when you have to write fast and don't want to spend half your time with cosmetics. Regarding cooperation with M$ fans, I use pdf (with tex2pdf). Everyone can cut and paste a paragraph into a mail message and just include comments. In my opinion stick to lyx, read the manuals, learn BibTeX (I use it with pybliographer) and you'll have a powerfull tool to write your documents. Regards EJ -- Ernesto Jardim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Biólogo Marinho/Marine Biologist IPIMAR - Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e das Pescas IPIMAR - National Research Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Av. Brasilia, 1400-006 Lisboa, Portugal Tel: +351 213 027 000 Fax: +351 213 015 948 http://ernesto.freezope.org
Re: Alternatives to Lyx?, was: Re: parallel.sty
> I should note that it's a long term goal to reduce the amount of such > training necessary. cool *g* > But there are some tricky problems. good luck! Grüße, Marcus http://www.Stormlight.de
Re: Alternatives to Lyx?, was: Re: parallel.sty
On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 05:37:49PM +0200, Marcus Beyer wrote: > I think most LyX users have made ugly experiences with other > word processors (like ms word) and are now very glad to have > a deterministic software that produces excellent output. IMHO > it is worth to invest some days of training to get used to the > word processor of your life :) This is also a good training in I should note that it's a long term goal to reduce the amount of such training necessary. But there are some tricky problems. regards john -- Khendon's Law: If the same point is made twice by the same person, the thread is over.
Re: Alternatives to Lyx?, was: Re: parallel.sty
> I am quite satisfied with Lyx though I`m using it only for 5 weeks now and > have written only about 40 pages (with some floats and tables). And I like, > that it is open source, because some parts of my thesis should be easily be > copied and integrated in other papers (I will put it on my website as a > lyx- and latex-file besides PDF). I had to discuss a bit with my professor > before he accepted PDF instead of Word97 which he wanted to use with its > "correction function" in our cooperation. Now he prints and corrects > manually, then sending me his corrections (we seldom see us personally). Perhaps he can use Adobe Acrobat (which costs some money) to change your PDF? > But Lyx (Qt for Windows) is still not there that I can recommend it to a > typical Windows-User. Even not to a scientist? Ouch :( I think most LyX users have made ugly experiences with other word processors (like ms word) and are now very glad to have a deterministic software that produces excellent output. IMHO it is worth to invest some days of training to get used to the word processor of your life :) This is also a good training in structural/logical thinking for physicians, biologists, pedagogues etc. ;-) Cheers! Marcus
Re: Alternatives to Lyx?, was: Re: parallel.sty
On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 02:37:08PM +0200, Michael Logies wrote: > I am quite satisfied with Lyx though I`m using it only for 5 weeks now and > have written only about 40 pages (with some floats and tables). And I like, > that it is open source, because some parts of my thesis should be easily be > copied and integrated in other papers (I will put it on my website as a > lyx- and latex-file besides PDF). I had to discuss a bit with my professor > before he accepted PDF instead of Word97 which he wanted to use with its > "correction function" in our cooperation. There is some change tracking patch for LyX 1.2 (ask John for details) which should provide similar functionality AFAIK. But I understand that changing a professors way to do work is usually not done in a day... > Now he prints and corrects manually, then sending me his corrections > (we seldom see us personally). > > But Lyx (Qt for Windows) is still not there that I can recommend it to > a typical Windows-User. When I looked around I only found Framemaker > (1600 Euro in its german edition). Here I learnt about Scientific Word > (500 to 600 USD): http://www.mackichan.com/products/whichproduct.html > Scientific Word seems very similar to Lyx. And it is based on Latex, > too. SW & LyX basically target the same kind of users. My boss is/has been using it so I 'see it in action' from time to time. As far as I can tell, they are (apart from the pretty good CAS interface) not as far apart concerning core functionality (there are even area where LyX excels like including fancy graphic formats, 'non-trivial' exports and extensibility), but SW is clearly much more polished. SW comes e.g. with a 'style' editor and a pretty extensive collection of Journal styles whereas in LyX you may have to write things like Style Quotation LatexType Environment LatexName quotation ItemSep 0 TopSep0.5 BottomSep 0.5 ParSep0 AlignPossible Block, Left, Right, Center End yourself if you use 'non standard' classes. (Or ask somebody to do it for you...) > So perhaps this product would be an easier migration path to the > Latex-world than Lyx is at the moment. If you can afford the 500 USD (and do not think that money is better invested in making LyX a better 'product'), it is not the worst choice. My main reason not to use it is that it only runs on MS Windows and MacKinchan(?) flatly refuses to build a Linux version of it. > One advantage of Scientific Word is, that it has an integrated > export to RTF, connecting Latex to the MS-Word-World. Have you tried that? That's a lossy conversion both ways, so it is certainly not a means to co-operate with someone stuck to MS Word. > I know, that this can be done with free software from Latex to RTF, > but it is still not integrated within Lyx And never will. The Unix philosophy is not to build monolithic apps but rather re-use existing applications as building blocks. So if there is a 'latex2rtf' out there, set this up as a .tex->.rtf converter in your preferences and you will be done. I've never used latex2rtf, though, so I can't judge its quality. > Has anyone first hand experience with Scientific Word? Is it more > mature than Lyx 1.3.2? It is more 'mature', especially if you are locked in Windows. [That's not necessarily a reason to use it, but that's my opinion.] Andre'
Re: Alternatives to Lyx?, was: Re: parallel.sty
At 09:06 16.09.2003 +0200, Andre Poenitz wrote: Which is a hint to the answer to your question: Anything producing LaTeX would do. This includes anything rangingin from your favourite text editor to e.g. Scientific Workplace. Hello Andre, I was thinking about the average user (doctors, biological sciences - people who usually don`t do programming) who is using MS Word at the moment but wants a reliable and easy to use software for writing a scientific book with a lot of footnotes, pictures, cross references, TOC... I am quite satisfied with Lyx though I`m using it only for 5 weeks now and have written only about 40 pages (with some floats and tables). And I like, that it is open source, because some parts of my thesis should be easily be copied and integrated in other papers (I will put it on my website as a lyx- and latex-file besides PDF). I had to discuss a bit with my professor before he accepted PDF instead of Word97 which he wanted to use with its "correction function" in our cooperation. Now he prints and corrects manually, then sending me his corrections (we seldom see us personally). But Lyx (Qt for Windows) is still not there that I can recommend it to a typical Windows-User. When I looked around I only found Framemaker (1600 Euro in its german edition). Here I learnt about Scientific Word (500 to 600 USD): http://www.mackichan.com/products/whichproduct.html Scientific Word seems very similar to Lyx. And it is based on Latex, too. So perhaps this product would be an easier migration path to the Latex-world than Lyx is at the moment. One advantage of Scientific Word is, that it has an integrated export to RTF, connecting Latex to the MS-Word-World. I know, that this can be done with free software from Latex to RTF, but it is still not integrated within Lyx and I had no time to test this. Has anyone first hand experience with Scientific Word? Is it more mature than Lyx 1.3.2? Regards M. -- http://www.logies.de/ (u. a. _die_ Mailingliste für die Dentalbranche) PGP-key (RSA/IDEA) kommt mit angeforderter Empfangsbestätigung (return receipt)
Re: Alternatives to Lyx?, was: Re: parallel.sty
On Mon, Sep 15, 2003 at 11:51:22PM +0200, Michael Logies wrote: > Is there anything else than Framemaker (for Windows), which is a real > alternative to Lyx (for Windows) for writing long documents in science? And > as I understood, Framemaker cannot work with long footnotes (Lyx can > continue them on the next page). That's not done LyX, but LaTeX's doing. Which is a hint to the answer to your question: Anything producing LaTeX would do. This includes anything rangingin from your favourite text editor to e.g. Scientific Workplace. Andre'
Re: Alternatives to Lyx?, was: Re: parallel.sty
Michael Logies wrote: Is there anything else than Framemaker (for Windows), which is a real alternative to Lyx (for Windows) for writing long documents in science? And as I understood, Framemaker cannot work with long footnotes (Lyx can continue them on the next page). Raw LaTeX and groff can handle that kind of thing. But if you're looking for a WYSI* tool, there aren't many alternatives. Scientific Word is similar to LyX, in that it's a friendlier front-end to LaTeX, but I don't know if it's still being sold. There are a number of XML-based editors that may (or may not!) work for you. -- Larry Kollar k o l l a r @ a l l t e l . n e t Unix Text Processing: "UTP Revival" http://home.alltel.net/kollar/utp/
Alternatives to Lyx?, was: Re: parallel.sty
At 23:58 15.09.2003 +0300, robin wrote: Michael Chabon wrote: Thanks for all the help, I got it installed and working, but it's just too much of a pain. I will have to spend money for software, I fear. Well, LyX isn't for everyone - I happen to think it's the best thing since sliced bread, but if you want something more point-and-clicky, I'd suggest checking out Scribus before you splash out on an expensive DTP program. It doesn't have all the functionality of its commercial cousins, but it's getting there slowly. I'd still recommend persisting for a while with LyX, though - it kind of grows on you. I`m quite happy with Lyx now, though I still have some problems. But what I write shall only become a thesis, I don`t want to sell it ;-) Is there anything else than Framemaker (for Windows), which is a real alternative to Lyx (for Windows) for writing long documents in science? And as I understood, Framemaker cannot work with long footnotes (Lyx can continue them on the next page). Regards M. -- http://www.logies.de/ (u. a. _die_ Mailingliste für die Dentalbranche) PGP-key (RSA/IDEA) kommt mit angeforderter Empfangsbestätigung (return receipt)