Draciron wrote: > Greetings... greetings
> Also excuse my breach in ettiquete. I'm not a patient man :) don't worry, neither are we (or me at least) ... (i will try to answer some of your questions, where i can) > First is the editor won't let me use the enter key to create my own > sense of formating. This is rather irritating. Very annoying > actually. use word/openoffice/abiword? the basic philosophy behind lyx is to get rid of manual formatting and focus on content instead... > Now I'm stuck in indent hell. Nor can I manually add a blank line > between paragraphs. I am sure there is a formating option to do this > ctrl+enter or File->Paragraph Settings > but I disagree with the default design. what would you propose? > I could not find a word count utility. update to 1.4 > I do like the bookmarks concept. That is very important in a long > document. we are glad you like them > The built in Thesaurus is also a very essential and good idea. great > The Index feature is also well done. i start to like your mail... > Though I would love to use 2 different indexes, One a timeline index, > the other a conventional index. i am not sure you might find a developer interested in your timeline (more on this below) > I very much like the notes feature that you have. That is very well > done. thanks > The built in revision control is a nice feature thanks, it will be improved in 1.5 > Now to explain what led me to try LyX. we're listening... > When I write I don't know any more than the reader how the story > ends. you write emails like that too? > When I write it's like I open a window to a world and I'm doing my > best to keep up with the events as they happen and translate enough > shorthand to later go back and add in detail. are you doing drugs? > I can pump out hundreds of pages of these in week. wow > The detail side is tedious and takes months. In both cases a crucial > part of the process is the timeline. If the story does not involve a > very sequential series of events then it is quite easy to get out of > synch. This can of course be very disconcerting to the reader if not > corrected. Disconcerting to the author as well. The best example is > one from a series of books most Linux users have probably read. The > Lord of the Rings that is. i must admit that i've read it, although i was young at the time (i know, i know, it's no excuse...) > Different authors use different means to deal with timelines. Some > cover thier walls in giant structures of notes. (btw, lyx features a spellchecker) > Most today use pen and paper, often creating folders which with many > artifacts besides the timeline. Few do this on a computer today > becuase there are few applications that do a very good timeline and > no software actually supports built in timelines. it sounds really complicated and i can imagine that the market for this is rather small. unless a developer needs this himself and finds a way of implementing it in a clean way, i don't see this feature coming to lyx very soon... > I dispise VI and Emacs. i understand, i am a notepad guy myself... > I'm sorry I hate those two editors. that's okay. just let it out... > Anyway I use Kedit since it's lightweight, has all the basic editing > functions I need for my primary writing. ah > I use little in the way of text formating. [snip] [snip] [snip] > [snip] [snip] sorry, but you (i) kinda got lost in the details there... > For me I'd rather have a row of tabs much like done in Kate or > Firefox. it looks like this is going to be added to 1.5 which is in the works now, > These would be the chapters or other customizable means of > organization allowing you to group documents in one or more of the > tabs. Then each tab would have a tab for each document in that > chapter/group. but no nested tabs i am afraid... > For me the ideal writing system [snip] [snip] > For example in my first novel, a work of Fantasy, there is a critical > battle that shapes the future of the hero of the story. sounds like my first time on lyx-devel... > I refered back to that battle many times in the course of the book. and i kinda try to forget my battles > The description of the village which the hero came from was another > couple pages I constantly refered back too as was encounters with > critical charactors, a 2nd battle much later in the book and the > meeting of his true love. aha > Formating is important and depending on what you are doing and who it > is for that can vary. Many places want plain text. Some places only > accept paper copies. Some will not even read formated text, some > expect the formating to already be in there. Some want your text > submited as Word files, some as plain text, some as Word Perfect, > some as HTML and a few will accept a few formats including RTF. The > lack of export support is a potential issue though I'm sure I could > export to text then import in Abiword or Open Office. Might even be > able to save the formating thorugh such an operation but the extra > step is a bit of a hassle. Is is as I said something I do very late > in the writing proccess. mmm, there is the possibility to add converters to lyx, but i don't know whether there are any decent latex -> word converters around... > Grammer checking is an essential part of writing. indeed > Without a grammer checker I'd have no chance of being published as > poor as mine is. you shouldn't be so hard on yourself... > Spell checking is another obvious tool. lyx has a spellchecker (see above) > Diction and style would be very helpfull. and character invention, plot development and ... > Because I split my story between many files global search and replace > would be really helpfull. you mean in nested documents? > What is just as crucial is built in version control. i think there is some support for interaction with CVS or SVN but i have never tried that myself so can't inform you there > [snip] > > Support for CUPs and GUI level printing would be really > helpfull. maybe other can comment on this one.. > So a really nice feature of a writer's editor would be the ability to > something like ctr-d-c and fill out a charactor sheet with basics > and even include the ability to add pics and wave files for later > reference. While I myself wouldn't use the pics many authors would. A > graphical tree of the chars relationship to other chars would be > another really usefull feature. Very similer too or literally > geneological. Depends on the story and the charactors involved. If a > story spans generations then it's very usefull to have that > genological information in an easy to read format but that can be > added to or edited on the fly from within the writing. The way I'd > display the charactors would be on the right a toolbar similer to > Firefox's history bar. Names of the charactors would be there. A > click would bring up a popup with charactor details formating along > these lines. > > Name age, traits (Eye color,hair(wavy,curly,etc, > color,length,),height,weight) ,relationship links Free for all text > description. > > A place for a pic for those who use pics and even possibly a sound > file place for some authors who might use a wav file to describe > vocal charactoristics/accents. History drill down for the charactor. > Many writers will write little novelettes about each char describing > thier entire life story in shorthand. i think this is more suited for a little database than lyx... > Key thing is it is availible to read WHILE you type. i like reading while it type too, although i know many secretaries who prefer blind typing... > I am writing this not as a criticism of what is a well recomended > piece of software. don't worry, we have a thick skin... > I just know what I want myself as a writer. I also > have a writer's and a developers viewpoint. So I'm sharing that > perspective from as a writer. thanks for that > There are lots of other whiz bang features that > are far less essential. Being able to feed mp3 lists specific to a > project for example. When I'm writing Fantasy I want ancient and > mystical sounding tunes. I'll play David Arkenstone, Lorenna > McKennit, Pink Floyd, Days of the new, etc. If I'm writing an action > adventure I'll be listening to Metalica, Iron Maiden, Iommi's solo > stuff, Sabbath, etc. Niether of those are good when writing about > network security. Unless it's AGGRESSIVE network security. Then > Metalica might be good. The list could be fed to your player of > choice. Me it's XMMS. i think lars will be really interested in coding this one up for you... > Hopefully I've at least contributed a usefull idea or two. I'd really > like to see something along the lines of what I've described. you might already find something of your needs in 1.4 and 1.5 may add some more > Thanx for reading my rants. you're welcome. good luck with the writing, and don't forget: sometimes less is more... regards, edwin. PS i might have forgotten some of these: ;-) PPS add them where appropriate...
