On Sun, Aug 22, 1999 at 07:50:31PM -0500, Henry McFadyen wrote:
> I'm an attorney in Dallas, TX. I'm interested in developing a LyX
> (KLyX) document class for legal forms in TX. Do you know of any
> computer expert in TX who is worxing in LyX development? Would you
> be interested in consulting on such a project? If yes, send me your
> snailmail address and I'll write a letter with samples of what I'm
> doing. Thanks Hank McFadyen
Lars forwarded a previous message of yours to the list. I'm sure Rich
Hawkins (sp? it's bedtime...), who is the LyX Team Unofficial Resident
LegalEagle, would be able to help.
As Lars Pointed out in that earlier message, there are two things one
must do: first we'll need a LaTeX class file for legal documents.
Then we'll need to make a LyX layout file that uses that class.
Creating a layout isn't too hard. Creating a LaTeX class is
nontrivial. I've done it, specifically for University of Colorado
Graduate School Theses. It took a while.
If you don't know what LaTeX is, here's a short explanation: it's
a typesetting engine crossed with HTML on steroids. (Hey, I said it
was a short explanation, not a precise one...) Because it's a
typesetting engine, LaTeX needs to know about the structure and layout
of a legal document. This information is what goes into a LaTeX class
file, bundling everything into a neat and tidy package for
ease-of-use.
Our first step, therefore, is for *you* to tell me/us about the
structure and layout of legal forms. What types of paragraphs are
there? Are there lists? Is there a numbering to certain types of
paragraphs? Are lists indented in any special way? How deeply can
lists be nested? If some of the paragraphs/margins have absolute
measurements in inches/cm, specify those. If other paragraphs/margins
are relative to text in the document, be sure to say so.
IF you want to learn more about LaTeX, I'd recommend the LaTeX2e book
by Kopka and Daly (sorry, I've just moved and it's still packed).
--
John Weiss
