Fred Nastos wrote:
Hi, I'd like to know if there are any issues with transferring LyX documents made on Linux to Windows, editing there with LyX, and then transferring them back to linux. I don't use Windows so I haven't been to try this myself.
Based on very limited experience, I don't think you'll have any cross-platform problems. LyX documents are just text files, so the only issue might be the fact that Linux terminates lines with LF and Windows terminates them with CR/LF. I just opened a document from the Wiki in the Win port of 1.3.5 with no problem, and the source file came from either Linux or some Unix-derived system (lines terminated in LF).
However, you will need to be sure that the Linux documents were created in version 1.3.x of LyX. The lyx2lyx script, which converts documents written in older versions to version 1.3.x, is broken in the Windows port. I downloaded a couple of LyX files from the Wiki that were written in 1.2, and could not open them.
I have seen the discussions here on the availability of LyX on Windows. I collaborate with someone who uses a windows GUI based wysiwym latex editor (scientific workplace).
Been there, done that, survived the migraines. I had a coauthor using SciWord, while I used LaTeX (didn't bother to try importing the documents into LyX). Very painful.
When I send them a latex file, generated by lyx, their program usually has trouble importing it, and even if it does succesfully import, it does not, as far as I know, export LyX files.
Correct. SciWord exports LaTeX, but not LyX (AFAIK).
So I am stuck editing raw latex with this person.
And, worse yet, SciWord makes extensive use of "proprietary" (perhaps I should say unique to SciWord) styles, which you won't find in any standard LaTeX distribution. I'm not sure if it's within licensing terms for your collaborator to suppy you with them, and without them the exported LaTeX files don't come close to looking the way they should.
They should be able to pick up LyX with little effort, but I'm afraid installing cygwin is too much to ask of them. I am hoping this new native Windows port will help.
There may be a bump or two during installation, but after that it should work fine. However, my impression is that SciWord's UI closely resembles that of Word, which is not true of LyX's UI, so there will be some learning involved.
-- Paul
