And I love that Lyx can do math stuff.-superboyac (March 15, 2011, 03:48 PM)
Would you say it's anything to worry about? I'm not saying it will never ever do anything wrong. Do I have to worry about doing a bunch of work, and then losing it? It doesn't seem to be the case.And I love that Lyx can do math stuff.-superboyac (March 15, 2011, 03:48 PM)
The other way around, I would say. LYX is a math editor than also can type words and stuff.
Well, what I would say is, that the included CygWin has made some computers unstable.-Curt (March 15, 2011, 05:05 PM)
Save yourself from the get-go by picking a Class that looks most like what you envision your end-product to be, and work with it.Well...I plan to be extremely picky about my styling. That's the whole point. It's not like any other program makes styling a breeze.
Save tweaking up your own for when you have more experience and a few hours to waste.-Edvard (March 15, 2011, 06:39 PM)
Frankly LaTeX assumes you, the writer, is useless at typesetting and document design, and will fight you tooth an nail every time you disagree with it. That include small things like page breaks, it believes it knows better than you.That doesn't make sense to me. latex is not a person, so you need to explain this without all the abstract talk. What good is a program if it's going to fight me for trying to get things just the way I want it? That doesn't make sense. If it's true, why the hell would I use it?
I've been writing a lot the past year. You guys might be familiar with my frustrations with Word and styles and all that. Well, I think Lyx is the answer for me. I haven't gotten my hands dirty with it yet, but I've been reading about it and it seems like it's exactly what I'm looking for.As I am new in this community, I didn't see your past posts. But I can say about your style. Because I'm answering your present post.-superboyac (March 15, 2011, 03:48 PM)
The first WYSIWYM word processor (and also first editor) was LyX. LyX is a graphical editor built on top of a LaTeX processor, so it, like LaTeX, is particularly suited for the editing of scientific documents — though, again like LaTeX, it can be used for a wide variety of purposes.
Inside LyX, the structure of a document is partly determined by the 'document layout' chosen for it. These layouts correspond to LaTeX document classes, though LyX can also work with DocBook. The export process is performed in two steps. First the contents are transformed from an internal format to LaTeX, and then the LaTeX processor is used to generate the output document in the requested format (DVI, PDF, etc.). An advantage of this system is that LyX can produce any format to which a LaTeX file can itself be converted.-Wikipedia on 'WYSIWYM'
I'm pretty excited about it, actually.-superboyac (March 15, 2011, 03:48 PM)
But when a few very minor things didn't turn out exactly to my liking, I spent a LOT of time tweaking a Class and after 4 or 5 hours it still wasn't coming out exactly rightThese are my questions:
I'm going to nitpick every line spacing, every white space, the indentations. I don't want it almost the way I want it. I want it exactly the way I want it. I don't want to go around in circles trying to "trick" the program to do it. I want a program that will easily do these things. Not with codes or syntax, but with buttons and dialogs and previews, etc.From that chunk of text, it sounds like you want DtP software, and not something with TeX as the underlying formatting engine.-superboyac (March 15, 2011, 10:45 PM)
I need to see a preview! It's 2011.Content over form, mate ;) - while TeX is about making things looking good, it's also about separating all the layout stuff from content-production. You shouldn't be worried about those pesky details (and wasting time tweaking) while producing content. Go into content-production mode, write write write write write, and worry about layouting later.-superboyac (March 16, 2011, 08:55 AM)
As I am new in this community, I didn't see your past posts. But I can say about your style. Because I'm answering your present post.
No big words for you, I just impressed.-zaminur143 (March 16, 2011, 02:02 AM)
Edvard, I'd like to discuss the details of your issue here:It's been quite a while since I used Lyx, pardon the rust.But when a few very minor things didn't turn out exactly to my liking, I spent a LOT of time tweaking a Class and after 4 or 5 hours it still wasn't coming out exactly rightThese are my questions:
1) What was it exactly that you were trying to do?
2) When you say tweaking, what were you tweaking. (the more specific the better. An xml file? A settings dialog?)-superboyac (March 16, 2011, 08:46 AM)
I don't think I'd have more than 10 styles I'd use. It can't be that hard to create 10 styles from scratch, could it? Let's say it takes me 40 hours. that's ok. I'm fine with that. What I don't want to do is after 40 hours, find out that it's really going to take me 100 more hours to figure this out, and then I just go back to Indesign. i suppose I should just start playing with it. I just can't see too many things that need to be tweaked. Font, font size, font styles (italic, bold), line spacing (top, bottom), indentation, bullet lists, numbered lists. This is all basic stuff. Then I'd add some page decorations, like borders, page breaks, horizontal lines. Is lyx going to fight me in trying to do these things?No, Lyx will not fight you per se, it simply does things automatically according to the set of rules defined in the Class.
Well, here's my first problem with Lyx:That's why I said start with an example document that was small.
No print preview of any kind.
I'd like to be able to preview what my document is going to look like without having to print to pdf, which takes a while. I'd like to be able to make some changes, check the changes, fine tune the changes, check it again, etc. I know, I know, "Lyx doesn't want you worrying about that." Whatever. I need to see a preview! It's 2011.
I think I'm sticking with indesign. I got a little excited yesterday.Oh.
Regarding preview, does this help: http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/NewInLyX20#toc22 (http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/NewInLyX20#toc22)Not really.-kfitting (March 16, 2011, 10:43 AM)
To sum up:
Why wouldn't somebody want Latex with a live preview? Let's say it was available right now, and implemented really well. Most people would NOT prefer to go back to another way. That's all I'm saying.-superboyac (March 16, 2011, 09:11 AM)
All the latex people say that there's no preview because it's intentional. "It's not WYSIWYG". But I don't think that's the real reason. I think the real reason is that it's difficult and takes a lot of time to program an interface that accurately (somewhat) shows to live document with all the styles attached. And then they defend it with the usual language that programmers like to tell people like me: it's more efficient, keyboard shortcuts are better, I can do more with [insert more difficult method here] way.-superboyac (March 16, 2011, 09:10 AM)
The learning curve for LaTeX is both deep and broad. In my opinion it's harder to learn than C, C++, Java, Perl and the like. But learn it you must, unless you're willing to accept every LyX default for the document class you've chosen.
The chestnut we used back in the old days was that LaTeX was not a WYSIWYG ("What you see is what you get") editor, but a WYSIWYW ("what you see is what you want") editor. And the way you inform TeX what you want is by editing rawtext stylesheets by hand - essentially, exactly what you (the OP, I mean) said when you pointed out that you don't know how to write your own stylesheets in the XML editor under discussion. And if it doesn't give you what you want, you nudge & fiddle with & otherwise coax that code until your output looks right.
To wrap up, let me share with you my current emotional state: when my grandfather told me tales of the Depression, he'd joke "Oh, it was terrible. Abysmal. Worst times of my life. Can't for the life of me figure out why I feel nostalgia when I tell you stories about it." I feel like grampa, right now.-superboyac (March 16, 2011, 03:04 PM)
I agree, Armando. I've been looking into it a little more and I think I have to stick to Indesign. I found this quote:The learning curve for LaTeX is both deep and broad. In my opinion it's harder to learn than C, C++, Java, Perl and the like. But learn it you must, unless you're willing to accept every LyX default for the document class you've chosen.-superboyac (March 16, 2011, 03:03 PM)
Please... don't "link" me to that quote... :) LyX is effectively perfect for that type of stuff.
(And I agree : not that complicated. The main matter here IMO isn't "complication" per se but needs and workflow.)-Armando (March 16, 2011, 03:42 PM)
I suppose the main question is just how much does one really need to fart around with those style files. 90% of the time, those predefined styles are going to work just fine. I do feel there's quite a lot of customize for customization's sake going on.I think I'm not being clear. I'm not really disagreeing with you guys. If I didn't want to create my own styles, latex and lyx are perfectly easy to use, and I'd LOVE to use it specifically because of the math abilities.-timns (March 16, 2011, 04:22 PM)
I do feel there's quite a lot of customize for customization's sake going on.I don't think that's fair to me, because it's like you are telling me how I should do my work. I understand that the default styles are adequate in most cases. I'm telling you, it's not adequate for mine. So my issue is, how can I create my own styles without getting bogged down with programming? I'm not going to want to use any languages. i want buttons, previews, dialogs, drop downs. If not...I'll just stick to Indesign.
Given your styling needs I think the only clear solution is InDesign, maybe in combination with InCopy. And since you already have it and evidently know how to use it, it's even more compelling.-JavaJones (March 16, 2011, 04:45 PM)
40hz, something very much like that occurred to me in considering this issue.-JavaJones (March 16, 2011, 09:50 PM)
If we knew more about the original project requirements here I think it would help determine the best approach though.
- Oshyan
If we knew more about the original project requirements here I think it would help determine the best approach though.
- Oshyan
I think Aram mentioned what he was doing in a previous thread. He's creating study review guides to help people prepare for a professional licensing exam.
:)-40hz (March 16, 2011, 09:59 PM)
Please. I'll explain it all in a couple of weeks. Let me finish it up first. But...in the meantime...the whole thing is chock full of math.If we knew more about the original project requirements here I think it would help determine the best approach though.
- Oshyan
I think Aram mentioned what he was doing in a previous thread. He's creating study review guides to help people prepare for a professional licensing exam.
:)-40hz (March 16, 2011, 09:59 PM)
Ah, must have missed that. Still, professional *what*? Why the math equations? How much are they used?
- Oshyan-JavaJones (March 16, 2011, 11:42 PM)
Roger. Sounds like at this point it's more of a "how to tackle the revision/next project" type of consideration anyway, so best to wait for completion of the current to fully consider and test.Yeah. It was much too manual for my tastes, but my partner didn't mind. I just need to know if there's a better way.
- Oshyan-JavaJones (March 17, 2011, 12:02 AM)
Actually, 40, had I not suggested mathtype to my partner, he was going to do it just as you said: creating the vector art directly in the program (Indesign, not Illustrator, although he was doing it there also).
Your way is logical, and also just cool. I actually wouldn't mind doing it (I'm very particular about how to present math solutions properly). But in our case, it's clearly not a good use of time and resources. You're more like my partner in this stuff, he enjoys the personal touch in all of this.-superboyac (March 16, 2011, 11:45 PM)
Not everything worth doing is worth doing well.I keep having to remind myself of this. I go overboard with this stuff. It's funny, our process was like this:
This here says Latexit can export EPS:Nice! Thanks. I don't know why I didn't catch that.
http://pierre.chachatelier.fr/programmation/latexit_en.php
Besides, it's freeware, so it's practically painless to give it a shot.-Edvard (March 17, 2011, 01:21 PM)
@SB- Latexit looks promising. EPS vector format is what we used for our formula "artwork."(I wish I knew this a few months ago! My friend uses a mac, and this would be perfect!)
@Edvard- very cool find. Thanks for sharing! :Thmbsup:-40hz (March 17, 2011, 03:59 PM)