On Thu, 27 Jul 2017 09:52:55 +0200 Roberto <foice.n...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Scott, thanks for your suggestion. > The archive does not really do the job because you cannot edit it > directly. My goal is to get something like a MS Word document that > contains all the pictures you add in it and you can send it as a > single file. > Cheers, > Roberto Everybody: If you respond to anything in this post, please please PLEASE interleave post (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style) so everyone knows what question you're answering, what assertion you're commenting on, etc. Software design requires specificity, and is brought to its knees by ambiguity. If your phone won't let you interleave post, for the purposes of descendents of this post, please do it from a regular computer. Hi Roberto, The ability to directly edit graphics within a LyX file would be a nice *option*: perhaps handy feature for some. Personally I prefer having a graphics file as a graphics file that I can edit in Inkscape or Vim or a home-grown shellscript. So if it comes to be at all, it should be an option: Not a forced conversion of workflow. Beyond that, please understand what you're asking for. You're asking for a complete restructuring of LyX native format. Such a format change will break thousands and thousands of scripts LyX users have written over the years to automate or augment LyX. Occasionally the LyX native format undergoes major changes and we script-owners have to change our scripts, but those native format changes are for much more vital reasons than the ability to click on a picture and pull it up in the editor of your choice (or navigate a long, convoluted menu to pull it up in something else). And I'm pretty sure the change you suggest would be the single biggest change in history to the LyX native format. You mentioned LyX being more like MSWord or LibreOffice. Copy a LibreOffice document to an empty, unused directory, and perform the following command: unzip mydoc.odt Use an editor to really look at all the files you just created. Keep in mind that all those files are interdependent, such that putting an extra sentence in content.xml often requires changes to the other files. LyX is a fairly DIY friendly native format. LibreOffice (and I'd presume MSWord) is "no serviceable parts inside." Implementing your request would eliminate whole categories of current LyX use. At one point in the thread you mentioned "ordinary users", and how they won't adopt LyX as-is. That's been my observation, as well. But as Abraham Lincoln so aptly put it, you can't please all the people all the time. If you remanufacture software to please the non-technical drag and drop crowd, you lose the DIY crowd. And vice versa. There are things you can do to accommodate both, but changing the native format isn't such a thing. And there's this question: Imagine you re-manufactured LyX to act like LibreOffice but with better output. Would people use LyX, or continue to use LibreOffice? The software world isn't a meritocracy. Another question: Do you really want "ordinary users" at all? So far, this mailing list has had the benefit of people who could succinctly state a symptom description and submit a minimal working example of a symptom. Do you really want this mailing list cluttered by people unable to run a command or differentiate between LyX and a browser? You bring up an interesting point, and your difficulty in collaboration is both a real problem and one experienced by everyone, but the cost of your proposed solution is too high. Roberto, what I'd recommend is that you start a new project that zips up a directory in an intelligent way, including only files called for by the master document and its descendents. Your project can include ways to prevent overriding a newer directory tree. Is my suggestion as "integrated" as if it were handled by LyX? No. Is it as pretty? No. Is it as foolproof? No. Is it as easy to program? Yeah, by a factor of fifty or more. I bet you can have a prototype running in a few hours, and a real project ready in 50. When it comes to GUIizing the program, try Python Kivy: VERY fast development. Or you could make it a browser app with Python Bottle. SteveT Steve Litt July 2017 featured book: Quit Joblessness: Start Your Own Business http://www.troubleshooters.com/startbiz
