Jose Capco wrote:
> Dear Mailing List,
>
> Are the .lyx files actually texts with commands
> similar to LaTeX and is it practical/possible to write
> in LyX using an ordinary text editor? I am already
> very much used to writing in LaTeX and personally I
> prefer LaTeX than LyX... but I need to write some
> (mathematical) articles together with someone and he
> can only use LyX and I have heard importing/exporting
> LaTeX for LyX is not very clean. I am trying to find
> the best possible means to collaborate with the other
> author who can only write in LyX. If I have to use
> LyX, I prefer doing it in a text editor (if possible)
> and compiling it later.. since I am using windows and
> the LyX available for windows (I tried both the QT and
> the Xserver version) don't display or display badly
> many math fonts (like sum and etc.) and I couldnt find
> any solution to this in the net. If thats the case,
> then it defeats the WYSIWYM and I prefer anyway to
> write things on a text editor since I know how to
> write them that way and it makes less difference for
> me.
>
> Sincerely,
> Jose Capco
The LyX file format is written as ascii text, so it's certainly
understandable. However, hacking it by hand is going to be fraught with
problems.
LyX on Windows: have you tried Ruurd Reitsma's port of LyX to Windows
using the native Windows API?
If you're set on using LaTeX, then I recommend that you use tex2lyx to
convert your LaTeX file back into LyX file format. texlyx is the
next-generation LaTeX to LyX converter and is much, much more powerful
than reLyX. Unfortunately for you, it's available only as part of the
development version of LyX. If I have time this evening, I'll try and
build it for you.
Usage would be:
edit your latex file
tex2lyx your_file.tex > your_file_14x.lyx
Command line switches (case sensitive):
-help summarize tex2lyx usage
-f Force creation of .lyx files even if they exist already
-userdir dir try to set user directory to dir
-sysdir dir try to set system directory to dir
-c textclass declare the textclass
-s syntaxfile read additional syntax file
This will create a LyX file in the latest LyX file format which your
friend's LyX won't understand. You'll then need to use the latest version
of the lyx2lyx python script to convert the just-generated lyx file to the
LyX 1.3.x file format:
python <path to>/lyx2lyx --list
[210, 215, 216, 217, 218, 220, 221, 223, 224, 225, 226,
227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237,
238, 239, 240]
LyX 1.3.x generates file format 221.
python <path to>/lyx2lyx --to 221 \
--output your_file_13x.lyx your_file_14x.lyx
Usage: lyx2lyx [options] [file]
Convert old lyx file <file> to newer format,
files can be compressed with gzip.
If there no file is specified then the standard input
is assumed, in this case gziped files are not handled.
Options:
-h, --help this information
-v, --version output version information and exit
-l, --list list all available formats
-d, --debug level level=0..2 (O_ no debug information,
2_ verbose)
default: level=1
-e, --err error_file name of the error file or
else goes to stderr
-t, --to version final version (optional)
-o, --output name name of the output file or
else goes to stdout
-q, --quiet same as --debug=0
--
Angus
