Mark, J urgen has already replied your question: the community of developers and their resources are limited, and they do what they can to provide us with the best LyX they can. It is really not a big problem for a user (that is, to someone possessing all necessary user rights on his/her Mac's OSX) to go inside the LyX bundle and copy the templates folder to some other folder and give it to LyX as a parameter in the preferences. If the installation process does not do this, I conclude that this is not easy for the developers and that there are other priorities for the usability of the software. The user can search the answers by the community to get this simple solution and implement it.
If community managed software with its specific constraints (which does not exclude the possibility of suggesting developments, supporting them sometime, and contributing yourself if you can) is not convenient for you, you should use other types of software (but be prepared to be disappointed because commercial software companies are not reputed to react more quickly then LyX developers to my experience (including Microsoft and MacKichan - even the community is very nice in this last case, but again with the constraints of a community ;-) ). I will stop here, because I have shared everything I can share with you on this point. Best regards, Murat 2014-03-28 14:53 GMT+01:00 Mark Salmon <markhsal...@gmail.com>: > Murat > Thank you for your reply. If these problems which have frustrated me and > wasted my time-- are well known by other users and there are solutions to > them as you say --- then WHY have the solutions not been embedded in the > latest beta? > I understand software development issues and the need to update as changes > are made but my comment above remains- as a simple user I need to be able > to use the software- if there are well know problems in the software on > particular platforms then surely the developers have a responsibility to > remove them when the software is upgraded? This applies equally to open > source community based as to commercial software. > Mark > > From: Murat Yildizoglu <murat.yildizo...@u-bordeaux4.fr> > Date: Friday, 28 March 2014 13:39 > To: Mark Salmon <markhsal...@gmail.com> > Cc: Jürgen Spitzmüller <sp...@lyx.org>, Murat Yildizoglu < > murat.yildizo...@u-bordeaux4.fr>, LyX Users List <lyx-users@lists.lyx.org> > > Subject: Re: Adding new class into LyX > > Mark, > > I understand your frustrations, but these installation discrepancies are > small problems, and they are perfectly known normally by the users (you can > search the mail list, and you will find these problems there and solutions > to them). So you have not been cheated by a commercial vendor hiding from > you the deficiencies of the product he sells (see below on your > responsibilities as a user, from my point of view as a user)... > > There was also a lot of discussion about the big rewriting of the BEAMER > module in the previous beta version. This is a big change, but it goes in > the correct direction, even if each of us had to take sometime to get used > to the new standard. You should read the documentation on the new beamer > module. My beamer slides from much older versions of LyX have nearly all > been imported without any big problems (including elements in the preamble, > but see the end of this paragraph). You sometime need to add a separation > at the end of a slide, and eliminate instructions - old tricks - that are > not necessary in the newer versions of beamer. > > In any case, this is a software developed by a community of dedicated > developers with limited resources, as J ürgen reminds it in his message. > And I am grateful to them that they indeed "put this software out to the > public", to which I belong (I am mainly a user). > > Communities developing open source softs cannot just reply "take it or > leave it" to users who formulate criticisms, but these users have also the > responsibility of taking time to collect some information about the soft > before adopting it (because adopting a new software is a time consuming > process, whatever is the software - commercial like SWP or not), and of > making suggestions of amelioration for the soft, when they have new needs, > instead of flaming the community with their definitive improductive > judgements. > > I hope that you will quickly solve your problems. > > Murat > > > 2014-03-28 13:58 GMT+01:00 Mark Salmon <markhsal...@gmail.com>: > >> Aplogies for lack of immediate response - I had to teach. I have had >> frustrations with Lyx ever since I moved from SciWord several years ago. >> Yesterday I upgraded to the latest beta and now when I try and load up a >> New file I get the error message that there is no begin document command >> when there clearly is in the source file- I wasted half a day trying to >> work out what was wrong- in fact I still don't know what was wrong but by >> removing use theme warsaw from the Latex preamble it works for some reason- >> secondly the installation on MacOSx does not drop the relevant files >> -templates etc. in the right places where the system can find them --- so >> when I ask for a New from template I am told the file will not compile as >> it requires external files which are not available.etc. Etc. etc. can you >> understand how frustrating this is when you are under pressure??? I am not >> a TeX speaker but someone who needs to use the wonderful system that you >> have helped to create in a professional context. However.... It is just a >> real pain that it does not work properly on a Mac largely because of >> install problems I believe. I fully understand your effort and all those >> who along with you have helped create Lyx in the form it is today - thank >> you- but that is not the point - nobody should put any software out to the >> public which does not work as it should- my time as yours is valuable. It >> is simply not professional. >> Mark >> >> From: Jürgen Spitzmüller <sp...@lyx.org> >> Date: Friday, 28 March 2014 10:44 >> To: Murat Yildizoglu <murat.yildizo...@u-bordeaux4.fr> >> Cc: Mark Salmon <markhsal...@gmail.com>, Steven Fredman < >> stevenfred...@gmail.com>, LyX Users List <lyx-users@lists.lyx.org> >> Subject: Re: Adding new class into LyX >> >> 2014-03-28 11:33 GMT+01:00 Murat Yildizoglu: >> >>> Don't get vexed so quickly Jürgen :-) The users should be able to tell >>> the problems they meet. >>> >> >> Sure, but in a constructive way. We cannot fix "a total waste of time" >> and "terrible support". >> >> >>> It is true that writing a module for supporting a new class file is not >>> very easy, but I do not know how it could be. We must find a way to tell to >>> the WSYWYM software a way to represent on the screen the new logical >>> components that are specific to this new class. Scientific Word (a >>> commercial software costing a LOT money- especially in France) has always >>> been confronted to the same problem, even if they provided a graphical >>> style composer (it was not very easy to use either, but I have not tested >>> it recently, since I have switched to Lyx). >>> >> >> Sure. We all want some graphical tool to setup layout files. There even >> were attempts to do so. But then, we are about 7 persons in the core team, >> all of has have a job and a career, so it is a it is in OSS: Things get >> implemented if someone finds the time and interest. >> >> OTOH, I think LyX has a great community. Usually, if someone requests for >> help with setting up a layout, he gets help within the same day. I have >> responded the OP within minutes, even though I actually have a paper to >> write myself at this very moment (where the deadline has passed already). >> >> So with all respect to wishes and dreams, my understanding for such >> unconstructive rants is rather limited. >> >> Jürgen >> >> > > > -- > > > *Prof. Murat Yildizoglu* > > Note: Please use the following address as such > > UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX > GREThA (UMR CNRS 5113) > MURAT YILDIZOGLU > 16 AVENUE LEON DUGUIT > CS 50057 > 33608 PESSAC CEDEX > FRANCE > > Bureau : E-331 > > mail: yildi-at-u-bordeaux4.fr > > web: yildizoglu.info > -- *Prof. Murat Yildizoglu* Note: Please use the following address as such UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX GREThA (UMR CNRS 5113) MURAT YILDIZOGLU 16 AVENUE LEON DUGUIT CS 50057 33608 PESSAC CEDEX FRANCE Bureau : E-331 mail: yildi-at-u-bordeaux4.fr web: yildizoglu.info
