Le 17/02/2017 à 07:17, Wei-Ting Lin a écrit :
Hi all,
I have used Lyx for several years. This is a really amazing software.
However, many people still write LaTex with text editors. That usually
means when we cowork on some article, we have to write LaTex directly.
This is ok. However, sometimes we have very long and complicated
equations. One of amazing features of Lyx is its math editor. This makes
the equation visible, when you're editing. That has helped me a lot.
Therefore, I'm thinking if it is possible to separate the math editor,
as a standalone, lightweight editor.
I'm also thinking if it is possible to call the editor from vim, emacs
or whatever, when we need to edit an equation, and then return the LaTex
code back to vim or emacs.
It seems there is no such work yet. I'm wondering how difficulty to
implement this. If this is not too hard, I would like to try to do it.
Thank you very much,
Wei-Ting
Dear Wei-Ting,
Using LyX as a stand-alone math editor is definitely feasible. The key
design that makes this possible is that for math, LyX directly reads and
writes LaTeX code (unlike for the text). Essentially you would get what
you can already do by copy-pasting LaTeX math into LyX math and copying
the LaTeX preview back into your document. I would be happy to see such
a feature implemented.
It should be easy to implement basic input/output (what you call "call
the editor and then return"). Then there would be some moderate effort
for the UI/cosmetics ("separate the math editor"). As for "lightweight":
LyX is already pretty quick; start-up is slow but this could be improved
a lot with a small amount of work to fix a few known bottlenecks.
Lastly, some LaTeX features are currently unsupported, but nothing
opposes that they could get implemented over time.
If you manage to get started with a prototype for the input/output
aspects, the rest will follow from there (in particular the cosmetic
aspects, which can be time-consuming and are best left to an ulterior
time). Assume for instance that you want to use a tex file containing
the math equation as the medium between your text editor and LyX.
Essentially LaTeX import works fine in this case, and what you want to
do on the LyX side is make it convenient to write the LaTeX math back
into the original tex file. Do not hesitate to ask for directions.
Sincerely,
Guillaume
