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On 31/01/13 11:41, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:20745.52180.122526.969237@zaphod.ms25.net"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On 2013-01-30 at 09:14:37 -0500, William Adams wrote:
> On Jan 29, 2013, at 10:22 PM, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
>
> > I suppose that the author of Lyx assumed that learning LaTeX is
> > difficult but in my opinion this assumption is wrong.
>
> I believe that LyX is attempting to address the difficulty which
> most naïve users have w/ matching up semantic tagging w/ visual
> appearance --- most people view code as too arcane to bother with.
Sure. But if they have to use a LaTeX package which isn't supported
by LyX, they have to insert LaTeX code anyway. Isn't it easier then
if they've learned LaTeX at the beginning?</pre>
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<font color="#000099"><i>So I'm wondering for whom LyX is
beneficial. BTW, a friend of mine
tried to write his bachelor thesis with LyX but gave up quite
soon and
created a standard LaTeX file instead. This was amazing because
he
always prayed that the LaTeX approach (typing control sequences)
is
completely wrong and control sequences should be inserted by
GUIs
instead. I was really surprised when I saw that he gave up LyX
so
early.</i></font><br>
<br>
I started off with LyX, but gave up on it.<br>
A few things I found annoying was the table layout, for one example,
where it was standard to have doubled vertical columns and \hlines.<br>
This doesn't always suit and I found a very simple programme called
`Gummi' as part of the Gnome desktop, which had the .pdf pane right
alongside the editor pane and printed out what I entered as I
entered it. It was a tremendous help. When you get immediate
feedback like that you can learn very quickly. I'm now using
Texmaker, but once I'm on top of that, I'll be switching to a
straight text editor - probably JEdit. Staging the transition is
helpful, but I don't think obfuscating the code is helpful, which is
all LyX does. At least I didn't find it useful and I'm not all that
advanced. LyX definitely didn't work for me. It seriously delayed me
in getting involved for at least three years, because of the
negative mental connotation of `code'. Very glad I took the leap
however and it has been helpful that it has been a series of small
leaps.<br>
<br>
The availability of good documentation was the other factor which
assisted enormously.<br>
Once you have the basic grasp of preamble lay-out, it doesn't take
much investigation to discover what other configuration options can
be applied to gain the effects you need if you have accessible
documentation.<br>
Kind regards,<br>
<br>
David<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"Res publica non dominetur."</pre>
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