I've been using lyx regularly for a while now (more or less since the usable native windows version appeared, because I guess like many others I have no choice but to work on win at the office), and overall I'm very pleased with it; many thanks to the developers. By posting the following problem I mainly want to stress the importance of improved latex compatibility in the import direction.
I've tried to import a latex document with (only) tables (tabular), because the table editor is one of the main advantages of lyx imo (well, the equation editor and cross reference management as well). What happens (on win and on linux) is that a lyx-file is produced (format version is 2.15), but then the program stops responding. I also tried to convert this 2.15-file manually from the command line with lyx2lyx and the same "hang" happens there.
My guess is that relyx has problems with the latex file and produces a bad lyx-file which lyx2lyx cannot handle. Too bad that the relyx documentation mainly says that tables and other things are problematic.
So my comments/suggestions are:
1. I read somewhere that another import tool is coming with the new lyx version (tex2lyx?); if this is true (and it would be great), would it be possible to provide it standalone even before the new lyx version is released?
2. In the meantime it would be nice if the relyx-savvy could provide (permanent links to) more concrete advice on what latex constructs to avoid. (In my particular case retyping the tables in lyx is probably quicker than hand-editing the latex code, but for long-term or search-and-replace batch operations this may be helpful.) Maybe I just missed it?
3. Because the lyx doc format apparently changes from time to time, it seems to me that lyx2lyx is a very very important component of lyx. I understand that developer resources are limited, so what I'm saying is just that making lyx2lyx more robust should maybe receive higher priority than other or new features.
I'm not including the latex source because I think the problems as such are well-known and not specific to my files. But if anybody actually has suggestions for a solution (use tool xyz...), I'd be even happier...
Cheers, Sven
