On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 05:36:18PM -0400, Richard Heck wrote: > Martin Vermeer wrote: > >On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 02:19:19PM -0400, Richard Heck wrote: > > > >>José Matos wrote: > >> > >>>On Tuesday 04 September 2007 18:30:15 José Matos wrote: > >>> > >>> > >>>> The changes made by Bo to the file format are quite deep. So I would > >>>> like > >>>>to tame both in the same release cycle, embedded and xml. More to say > >>>>about > >>>>this soon. > >>>> > >>>> > >>>Just to put this in the right context, the changes are quite > >>>deep "conceptually". I expect that we need some time to understand the > >>>depth of these changes. > >>> > >>>Note that now we can (as Richard remarked) insert the layout files in > >>>the lyx document. > >>> > >>What's now possible, I think, is for the layout file to be "bundled" > >>with the document. There's something else that could soon be possible, > >>and which is what I think I had in mind, namely, that the layout file > >>could be completely contained within a single, unbundled LyX document. I > >>don't know how soon I might be able to do this, but it's not terribly > >>difficult, and if anyone wanted to take it up, I could give an outline. > >> > >Is this a wise idea? Isn't bundling enough? And soon the .lyx file may > >contain a list of modules that it uses, in addition to a textclass. > >Isn't that good enough? > > > Here's the thought: > (i) I'd like to add the ability to have document-specific layout, so if you > want a quick charstyle inset you can just go to Document>Settings>Whatever > and enter, in a box like the Preamble box, the necessary code. This is for > quick-and-dirty one-off things, obviously. > (ii) Suppose we knew how to write a TextClass---something we will need to > do, anyway, if there's ever to be a GUI layout editor. Then it's trivial to > write the entire layout of the document into the custom-layout box (in > effect). > Why would you want to do this? Well, if you're exchanging a document back > and forth, maybe it's easier to do it that way than to mess with a separate > layout file. But of course (ii) presupposes (i), and (i)'s making sense > doesn't mean that (ii) makes sense, only that it becomes fairly simple. > > Richard
Hmmm, I am still not convinced. The big challenge here is building a user-friendly interface, which would IMO best be made an external GUI application. Where the result is stored is really immaterial. But as we already have a mechanism to bundle a layout file with a .lyx file, why provide a second mechanism for keeping them together? Unneeded complexity I could say. There's also a more philosophical objection (though you're the professional there :-) : separate document editing from document appearance design. LyX does that, but your proposal would make that border a little more fuzzy. Also, external .layout files are more easy to re-use. - Martin
