Lest ye think only Asger and Alejandro have opinions on this
subject...
1) First, let's get one thing clear: comment-embedded LyX commands
won't fly.
Sure, *if* we were only interested in supporting LaTeX, then the
comment-commands could work. OTOH, my initial work, and Amir's
subsequent labors, show that It's Gonna Be Tough to do all of that
translation...
2) Second, let's get another thing clear: parsing a fixed subset of
LaTeX is not hard.
Whaddya think mathed does? Is it any wonder Alejandro is reacting
the way he is? He comes back from a 1-2 month hiatus to people saying
"no more LaTeX in LyX file format." Or so it looks from first glance.
[I'm guessing here. I make no claim to speak for Alejandro.] All
that godd work at getting mathed to read LaTeX --- and math is one of
the trickier parts of LaTeX to parse/display right.
But that's where we are now. Lemme list some other things in brief:
3) LyX3 --- whatever it is --- should not be editable casually.
Nevertheless, it should be editable by careful experts. I needed
to do this for my thesis --- several times! Also, reLyX is just
very expert editing, in the end...
4) We should choose that combination of LaTeX and DocBook which is
most powerful for the features we need.
I must admit, I hate the current LyX file format. Looks like a
*reeeally* bad version of LaTeX. Not to denigrate the hard work of
Lars, Asger, Matthias, Jean-Marc, etc., etc. All of that hard work
was an accretion --- add on what you needed, sometimes in the form of
a quick&dirty hack. Since LyX3 will be a disruptive [i.e. incompatible]
change in the file format, let's plan it well. That includes making it
an extensible format.
Now, what I mean by combination is a "hybrid" format. Example:
suppose we decide to go with a DocBook/SGML-ish base syntax. We'd
then use constructs like:
<slide>
</slide>
<math>x<^>2</^></math>
in place of "\begin{slide} ... \end{slide}" "\(x^2\)" and so on.
OTOH, if we decide that "command-argument" syntax, like LateX's, is
better, we could have constructs like:
\LyXInset{foo}{
%Inset contents go here.
}
\URL{foo.addr.org}{string descr}
...and so on.
5) The two criteria we need to balance are Extensibility and
Parsability.
I has some indication from the Alejandro-Asger debate that
DocBook-like syntax may be easier to parse. It is extensible?
Anyhow, it's late, and I have a commuter train at 6:30 to catch
tomorrow morning. I can flesh this out another time.
--
John Weiss
