On Wednesday 24 May 2006 11:01 am, Enrique S Gonzalez Di Totto wrote: > So what I meant to say is that providing the user with a graphical > interface where they can create layouts and customize the few usual > options for an enviroment (font family, size, spacing, etc.) would > allow them to get started. Most users wouldn't need to write even a > single line of LaTeX code (either in a .layout or in an ERT inset) if > you gave them that.
I'd *LOVE* to have a tool like that. One of my hardest jobs as a self publishing author is tweaking my layouts so that my book's "look and feel" will be pleasing to my audience. I do that in the layout file so as to present a consistent "look and feel" throughout the book. But tweaking layout files is a daunting task complete with huge amounts of debugging time. If someone creates a tool like that, my one request is they don't make it dependent on the latest version of this_library and the latest version of that_library to the point where one would need to redo their whole Linux distribution to run the program. There's nothing inherant about making a layout constructing/modifying program requiring the latest of anything -- a simple Perl web app could do the job, or a simple Perl curses or tk app. In fact, a text menu plus something to choose alternatives would do it. Maybe I could even glue it together with UMENU (http://www.troubleshooters.com/umenu/index.htm). What I like about what you said is that we include a subset of the universe of LaTeX tweaks, not try to do everything (which as one person in this thread stated, might be more difficult than TeX itself). If we do this, and if we spend most of our energy on the problem domain (layout construction) rather than figuring out intricacies of Tk, KDE, wxPython or whatever, I'd like to be part of the crew that does it. Should we start designing it on this mailing list? Thanks SteveT Steve Litt Author: * Universal Troubleshooting Process courseware * Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist * Manager's Guide to Technical Troubleshooting * Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting * Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore http://www.troubleshooters.com/utp/tcourses.htm
