Steve,
Thank you very much for your input. If it makes any sense, I totally agree
with your disagreements.
I have been an OpenOffice user for over a decade. A few years ago, I became
interested in typography, and soon became frustrated with the typographic
limitations of OpenOffice. Specifically, it drove me crazy that I had these
neat OpenType fonts on my computer but OpenOffice couldn't access their
expert typographic glyphs.
About a year and a half ago, I was doing a Google search for software that
might be OpenType savvy, and I stumbled on TeX/LaTeX as a possible solution.
At the time, I knew absolutely nothing about the TeX world. Fortunately, I
came across a link to LyX, which I consider to be LaTeX with training
wheels. When I printed my first document with Palatino and old style
numbers, I thought I had died and gone to typographic heaven. And, those
justified margins--especially with Microtype! I had never seen anything so
beautiful come from my OpenOffice. In fact, until discovering LyX and LaTeX,
I never bothered justifying margins with my word processors because it
looked so bad.
You're absolutely right about the elegance of LyX's interface. I chose a
poor word for that sentence. After using LyX, the OpenOffice interface looks
extremely cluttered and very much like a digital typewriter. And, I fully
agree that I PREFER that LyX is not fully WYSIWYG. It makes document
production SO much faster.
I wrote the booklet more for myself than with any specific audience in mind.
I did it to learn the program. I'm happy to share it with anyone who might
find it helpful.
Virgil
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Litt
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 5:51 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis
Hi Virgil,
Congratulations and thank you for providing first-class LyX
documentation. I hope you post on your website both that PDF and the
.lyx and .layout files that produced it, and then place a link to them
on the LyX wiki.
I agree with almost everything you say in your document, and will now
list my disagreements. Anything not listed below -- that means I agree
with you.
#1: When listing LyX advantages you forgot a big one -- it's an
extremely fast typing environment -- faster than TeX, LaTeX, and
slightly faster than MSWord.
#2: You imply LaTeX is easier to work with than TeX. 99% of the world
agrees with you, but not me. In my humble opinion, TeX is incredibly
easy and consistent, and suitable for writing moderately complex
documents. In my opinion (and as I mentioned, mine is a minority
opinion), LaTeX becomes prefereable only when you're doing very
complex things with your document, or when you want a ready-made
document class. The other reason to use LaTeX is that LaTeX, not TeX,
is the technology behind LyX.
#3: You say "Like a modern-day word processor, LYX places a graphical
user interface on top of the basic LaTEX foundation. However, it is
still not as elegant as a true wysiwyg word processor." Personally,
I'd replace the word "elegant" with the word WYSIWYG. In my opinion,
once someone's used LyX for a few weeks, LyX will seem every bit as
elegant as WordPerfect, MSWord, LibreOffice etc. LyX simply doesn't show
page breaks or which words go on which lines
#4: You say "In fact, the LYX developers call their program wysiwym—
What You See Is What You Mean." That's absolutely accurate, and man, I
really wish the LyX developers had never called it "What You See Is
What You Mean." I find that phrase irrelevant, misleading, and
unnecessary. In fact, LyX is partially WYSIWYG, and that's not a bad
thing. Rather than trotting out that WYSIWYM acronym, I wish they'd
list LyX's features: Fast authoring, beautifully typeset output, easy
and beautiful equations, greatly favors styles-based authoring and
disfavors fingerpainting.
#5: Your document seems to be targetted at an audience who has been
using MS Word and is unfamiliar with LyX. You might want to add in a
few places "after a few weeks using LyX you'll view it more like ..."
This was an excellent piece of documentation. I've used LyX ten years,
and didn't know about the microtype package until reading about it in
your document. Thank you!
SteveT
On Tuesday, October 18, 2011 12:41:35 PM Virgil Arrington wrote:
If it's helpful, attached is a booklet I wrote about LyX. I
prepared it as an exercise in order to learn how to use LyX.
After performing this exercise, I would definitely try using LyX or
a plain LaTeX editor for a thesis.
But, before doing so, I would definitely read the LyX Introduction
and Tutorial in the Help menu. That will save you a lot of
heartache.
Virgil
-----Original Message-----
From: Johnston81
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 12:49 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis
To the ones that can and will help,
I apologize if this has already been covered in another topic; I
have searched but been unable to find any such. If, however, you
know of such topics, if you could please point me in the right
direction?
My current situation is this: I am working on my Master Thesis and
currently doing my research and such. As it is now, I am uncertain
how large my final project will be - I imagine that the final
document will probably exceed 100 pages, but where I am uncertain
of size I am certain that the document will contain considerable
amounts of graphs and tables - rather more than I am comfortable
working with in Word 2010.
My questions are fairly simple to ask, I am not certain that
everybody will agree on the answers but rough estimates are all I
am looking for anyway. So here goes:
1. Considering LyX over Word, how much time would I approximately
need to learn LyX to the extent that I can actually produce text,
including graphics and formulas(!), from a template?
2. What can I reasonably expect my learning curve to be after
having learned the bare basics; what I mean is, is it simple to
teach LyX to oneself and how easy is it to solve problems when
encountered?
3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately -
save or spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?
I have many more similar questions, but for now this will have to
do - I shouldn't take to much of your time! But if you have any
other advice or experiences that relate to my post, that you feel
could help me or others that are doing the same kind of
contemplations, please do not hesitate and do share!
Thank you very much for time. I look forward to read your replies!
Johnston81
--
View this message in context:
http://lyx.475766.n2.nabble.com/Engineering-student-considering-LyX
-for-Thesis-tp6901371p6901371.html Sent from the LyX - Users
mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
--
Steve Litt
Author: The Key to Everyday Excellence
http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/key_excellence.htm
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt
