On Monday 31 December 2007 05:11, Abdelrazak Younes wrote:
> Steve Litt wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > For the first time I've gone beyond book outlining in VO (VimOutliner)
> > and am actually writing the book (via body text) in VO. What this does is
> > eliminate the artificial demarkation between outlining and writing.
> >
> > It's very possible, and in fact quite likely, that some chapters will be
> > ready for writing long before others are fully outlined. In the past this
> > led me to either retard writing certain chapters, or prematurely convert
> > to LyX.
> >
> > Now, to an extent, I can write one chapter while outlining another, and
> > have everything come out well in the end.
> >
> > This is not a rigorous process. The VO writing will be only a very rough
> > draft. It can't include things like Tips, Notes, character styles etc.
> > Well, it could, but not without time consuming difficulty. Instead, this
> > is an informal extension of traditional outlining. The goal is still to
> > have the book really take shape in LyX.
>
> So why don't you use LyX-1.5 directly then? Or more specifically what is
> missing in LyX outlining facilities?
He Abdel,
I haven't yet used 1.5, but when I do I'm pretty sure I'll find one thing
missing in its outlining facilities: speed.
VimOutliner (VO) was built for speed from the bottom up. 100% keyboard driven,
no need to reach for a mouse. It uses the ultra touch-typist-friendly Vim as
an engine, and adds ultra-quick ,, commands for managing the outline. I can
compose and organize as fast as I can think -- a huge advantage when planning
a book.
> I can think of two:
>
> - section folding/unfolding: I don't really understand why this is so
> helpful for some.
I couldn't live without folding (which in general outliner-speak is called
expand/collapse. It allows you to view the big picture and then drill down.
It's a way of impedance matching the work to the mind. It's not about
navigation, it's about getting the optimal view of the work.
> IMO, the ability to jump from section to section by
> clicking in the outlining dock is enough.
That sounds like an excellent feature. Perhaps it can be put into VimOutliner.
> - drag&drop sections in the outlining dock: right now you have to click
> one of the 4 outline buttons.
Yes, it sounds like dragdrop section moving would speed things up. VimOutliner
doesn't have it either. With VO, you collapse the section you want to move,
delete with dd, move to its desired destination, and press p or P as
appropriate. This sounds very Mickey Mouse when described, but it's not that
bad.
>
> Both features are not too difficult to implement provided that you find
> a volunteer to implement them ;-)
>
> If you (and others) could describe what you would like to have in the
> Wiki, it would certainly be helpful.
I'm not too good with a Wiki, so I'll describe VimOutliner's features right
here:
Promote/demote -- headlines or whole trees
Expand/collapse (also called folding)
Expand/collapse by headline, by tree, and outline wide
Body text that wraps (headlines don't wrap)
Checkboxes with percentage completion
Interoutline linking
Executable lines -- any content can be viewed/executed from an outline
Lightning quick interface for the touch typist
I'm not sure all of the preceding are necessary for an document's outline
mode.
HTH
SteveT
Steve Litt
Books written in LyX:
Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist
Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting: Just the Facts
