I just downloaded and installed LyX via the Windows installer. I've
used LaTeX before (not recently), but never LyX. In playing around
with the LyX Tutorial, I find that after changing some text to red or
green and then generating DVI, I get errors such as this,
LaTeX Error: Undefined color `RED'
with this explanation when I click on the message (yes, the
explanation really does refer to green, not red, notwithstanding the
message above):
\chapter
{\textcolor{green}{Getting started with \LyX{}}}
You're in trouble here. Try typing <return to proceed.
If that doesn't work, type X <return to quit.
[snip]
The resulting DVI has the appropriate colors on the appropriate text,
so I don't
know what the LaTeX errors are complaining about.
This is a weird problem. It's got something to do---I don't know what,
yet---with the way LyX is handling "LyX" and "LaTeX". These get
converted to custom macros, and they are not playing nice for some
reason with \textcolor. I'm cc'ing this to the devel list so someone
will take care of it, or at least explain it.
Furthermore, I find that I have to wait at least 10 seconds for Yap to
update
its display after generating new DVI, and this is on what should be a
pretty
fast machine: a dual-core newish Thinkpad with 2GB of RAM. Sometimes
I've had to wait over 30 seconds for Yap to update.
You don't say which documents you are compiling. Even on my spankin' new
quad core monster, the Extended Features manual can take a while to
compile. This is a LaTeX thing. Given the references, figures, and
stuff, there's a lot to do. LaTeX runs three times, at least. (If you
launch LyX from a terminal, you can see what's going on.) If you were
really going to write something as long as that manual, it'd be a good
idea to break it up into chunks. I suppose that one's not broken up
because it's intended to be readable online, via the Help menu. Anyway,
it depends on what you are doing. And I guess it depends upon Yap. Maybe
it's slow as dirt? What do other people use around here? Anyone? (I'm on
Linux.)
It'd be nice if compiling happened in the background. I know that's on
several people's radar, but no-one has gotten to it.
My current goal is to evaluate LyX's suitability for a book I'll be
writing.
The LaTeX errors when using colored text and the long delay for Yap to
update
its display don't give me a very favorable initial impression. Are
these issues
simple normal newbie bumps in the road, or are they more likely
indicators that
I'm probably going to run into even more problems in the future?
The former is a weird bug that emerged from a combination no-one
actually uses. The latter, well, I doubt it's really a long-term issue.
Richard
