On Friday 15 April 2005 04:47 am, Angus Leeming wrote: > Ingar Pareliussen wrote: > > there are also work on making xml lyx native language: > > http://wiki.lyx.org/Devel/DocumentInXMLFormat > > But i do not know how far that has come yet. > > It won't be part of LyX 1.4 and it won't use Spirit. Lars is keen on > migrating to an XML format in LyX 1.5 however. > > Angus
Why change the LyX native language? It's incredibly readable and parsable the way it is. I'd need to rewrite my otl2lyx utility, and probably 5 or 10 other program's I've written to process LyX native files. Wouldn't the incorporation of the Xerces parser bloat up LyX? If you use DOM to handle the XML in memory, it limits filesize. If you use SAX, well, it's kinda nasty IMHO, and might require multiple runs through the file for many functionalities. If it were me prioritizing new features to LyX, I'd put in character styles and a facility to make environment creation and modification much easier. To summarize, in my opinion the current LyX native format is line oriented, and therefor easily parsed without a special parser, and intuitively obvious within a text editor. XML would not have these advantages. SteveT Steve Litt Author: * Universal Troubleshooting Process courseware * Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist * Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist Webmaster * Troubleshooters.Com * http://www.troubleshooters.com
