On 29/09/12 18:21, David Piepgrass wrote:
Very new user here. I have a couple of comments, mainly about LyX's
manual.
Hi David,
your comments are very welcome, and I'm sure they'll be useful to fix a
number of things that are unclear from the manuals for starters.
LyX uses its own file format, which copies the latex syntax in some
cases (e.g., for math contents). It doesn't edit directly LaTeX (or TeX)
files, but it has import/output capabilities from/to the LaTeX format,
and it uses LaTeX itself to create the DVI/PS/PDF output. LyX exposes
many nice features of LaTeX hiding the complexity often needed to use
them, embedding the intelligence needed to plug the right latex code for
doing whatever the user needs. Using regular LyX features, without
custom TeX code segments, it is nearly impossible (or, it should be) to
produce with LyX a document that doesn't "compile" as DVI/PDF. For
example, when entering text, characters are automatically escaped as
needed in the produced output latex. Similarly, in math mode you cannot
type mismatching braces, which are well-known to drive you mad while
editing LaTeX code. LyX can also handle and automatically convert a
great number of image file formats, when they're added to a document.
Still, you can get a plain latex output of a LyX document, if and when
needed.
Concerning tables, one of the very useful things in LyX is that they can
be edited "WYSIWYG"-like mode, instead of filling the screen with "&"
and "\\".
If you're a LaTeX expert, you'll find useful the LyX capability to be
customized quite a lot w.r.t. the produced LaTeX output (see
Help->Customization).
Should you feel the need to see LaTeX enhanced with some of the features
you suggest, I'd encourage you to search for similar issues reported in
the past, on the LyX Trac bug reporting system
http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome
and possibly open new tickets as needed.
Thanks, bye,
Tommaso
