Thanks to everyone for the many suggestions. To clarify the issue and sum up the outcome:
My question was really about the Mac installer, not about the functionality of LyX without a suitable TeX installation. In other words, I was asking: "Can a minimally computer savvy Mac user install LyX only with no help and obtain a working LyX-editing only environment?" And the answer, I am happy to report, is yes. Aside from the puzzlement raised by the "Untrusted source" dialog, installation (of 2.0.6) went smoothly and we are happily cooperating. On the other hand, on the alternative question of "How to provide a minimal yet still fully functioning LyX+TeX installation" I particularly liked Eberhard's solution. It was not viable in my case, since the user is an ocean away and working on a crappy (and expensive) internet connection, but I think it should be kept as a LyX recipe for space constrained Mac users, a category that is growing fast now that traditional hard drives have gone the way of the dodo on the MacBook Air. Perhaps it should be put on the wiki? And since it is really not Mac-only (Mac-Basic is just the Mac-version of TexLive's basic scheme, I guess), perhaps it could be generalized to other platforms as well. Cheers, Stefano On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 3:12 AM, Dr Eberhard Lisse <[email protected]> wrote: > Stefano, > > put the Mac-Basic on a mac that uses this and load all missing packages > with tlmgr until it works. > > Then run something like > > tlmgr list|grep ^i|awk '{print $2}' > mactexmedium.txt > > Now you install Mac-Basic on her computer taransfer the file and run > something like > > sudo tlmgr install `cat mactexmedium.txt` > > which leaves her with a minimal installation that has all missing > packages. I am quite sure once she has started to edit and sees the > output from a compile run, she'll be convinced. > > Once she's done and she really doesn't like it you can do > > sudo rm -rf /usr/local/texlive/2013basic > > to remove the 473MB (which reside on my box) :-)-O > > el > > > > on 2014-01-29, 19:19 stefano franchi said the following: > > I am trying to convince a Mac-only colleague to use LyX on a common > > project. She resists installing TeX on her system, for a number of > reasons. > > > > But she won't need to typeset anything---I'll be in charge of that---and > > will only use LyX to edit jointly produced file. > > > > A LyX-only installation would suit her needs perfectly. But I can't > > figure out from the lyx.org <http://lyx.org> page if this is possible at > > all. The page says: > > > > "LyX for Mac OS X is available here: LyX-2.0.7+qt4.dmg > > <ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/bin/2.0.7/LyX-2.0.7+qt4.dmg>. Before you > > install LyX you need to install a TeX system such as MacTeX > > <http://www.tug.org/mactex/>. " > > > > Is that requirement enforced? I don't have a Mac at my disposal to try > > it out. > > > > Best, > > > > Stefano > > > > > > > > -- > > __________________________________________________ > > Stefano Franchi > > Associate Research Professor > > Department of Hispanic Studies Ph: +1 (979) 845-2125 > > Texas A&M University Fax: +1 (979) 845-6421 > > College Station, Texas, USA > > > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > http://stefano.cleinias.org > > -- __________________________________________________ Stefano Franchi Associate Research Professor Department of Hispanic Studies Ph: +1 (979) 845-2125 Texas A&M University Fax: +1 (979) 845-6421 College Station, Texas, USA [email protected] http://stefano.cleinias.org
