Lance W. Haverkamp wrote:
Something appears to be significantly broken:
I'm not submitting these as bugs because they're *so* bad, this can't be
normal, otherwise LyX would still be an Alpha release. I have no idea
what's going on, hopefully you can see some common thread that's causing
all these errors.
I'm running a Dapper-based MEPIS Linux system. Dapper includes 1.3.7.
I have also installed the Dapper version 1.5.1, from the LyX servers
(which installed without errors). Ubuntu/Debian packages automatically
install all the programmer-specified dependencies, so all the background
requirements should be fulfilled, and configured properly--if not, we
need to get the package maintainers to fix that.
Oh, and "Reconfigure" fixed some other errors, but not these:
Some of the example documents can't even open without reporting an error:
1) Opening the example article docbook_article.lyx, for example,
results in:
Warning: Document class not available
----------------------------------------
The layout file requested by this document,
docbook.layout,
is not usable. This is probably because a LaTeX
class or style file required by it is not
available. See the Customization documentation
for more information.
LyX will not be able to produce output.
I can't imagine you're shipping examples files without the "stuff"
needed to open them, so I assume this is some kind of installation or
configuration problem...
Yes, LyX ships files without the "stuff" needed to print them.
This because LyX depends on other software to produce output.
Note that you can still open & edit those files, you merely can't
print, export or convert them.
Most document classes depends on latex. There are many
different distributions of latex - lyx can't package
stuff for each of them. Docbook is in a class of its own,
needing its own set of software. Again, way too much to
distribute for LyX.
In a linux distro it is possible to add dependencies, but
lyx does not add dependencies for everything. This because
some people want to run lyx on a (smallish) machine
that don't have latex. Instead, they transfer the lyx file
to another powerful machine when they want to
produce final output.
Advantages of this approach:
* I can edit files on a small machine when on the road,
then print or make pdf at the office. So I can get
work done while on the bus. I don't need to
print while on the bus though.
* I can quickly install just lyx on a friends/clients computer,
write some stuff and mail it home. Or boot linux
off a cd and do the same.
Linux distributions like debian and ubuntu can have
the lyx package "recommend" all the packages that
lyx can put to use. This is a lot though, so installing
them all by default is just stupid. LyX supports docbook
for example, but lots of people never uses docbook at all.
They don't want docbook software installed. Similiar
for many other special classes.
Note that many other wordprocessor don't
distribute "everything" either. Openoffice don't distribute
printer drivers. Ms office don't come with the windows os needed.
Latex & docbook & various converters are effectively the
"printer drivers" for LyX.
2) Attempting to view (DVI) chessgame.lyx results in the following
error message:
An empty output file was generated
followed by:
Lamda.sty not found
So you need to get Lambda.sty for this to work. Not something
we want to distribute with lyx, as only a few people actually use
the chess stuff.
Try to see it this way: LyX _supports_ a lot of stuff,
if you happen to have it and want to use it. This is nice
for those who used to print their chessgames and
such using only latex before. Now they can use
LyX too, which is more userfriendly than latex.
Some simpler files do print OK.
Unnstalled 1.3.7 reinstalled 1.5.1, no change
Uninstalled 1.5.1 reinstalled 1.3.7 no change; error messages worded
slightly differently, but still largely non-functional beyond the most
basic commands.
That's the way it is, and it will probably not change, at least
not from the lyx development side. If you want to use
everything LyX supports, then you have to install all that too
yourself.
Of course you can ask your distribution maintainers to
distribute a "lyx-with-everything" package. Such a package
should simply depend on everything LyX is capable
of utilizing - this would get you everything in a single
install command. Be warned that it may download
several hundred megabytes more than the usual
lyx install.
3) In simpler documents using both 1.3.7 & 1.5.1 I've been unable to
get a Figure Float Wrap to appear in either DVI or a print-out. It's
visible to me--I can see both the graphic & the text in LyX.
Floated images work fine, but as soon as I try to wrap text, the entire
float becomes invisible to DVI & Post Script. In fact, if there's
nothing else on the page, DVI complains that I sent it a blank page!
The only things I see to configure are windows called "Graphics" OR
"Text Wrap Settings". I have changed all kinds of things in both those
windows and see *absolutely no change whatsoever* in the LyX window
appearance of the float box, graphic nor text (using 1.5.1). Is
something suppose to be changing that I can see? The red (float?) box
automatically goes full (column?) width and I see no way to adjust that.
Text wrap float is implemented by a latex package that
simply don't work very well. The wrapped stuff disappears
if it gets too near sectioning commands or a page break.
Still, some people wants to have this option, no matter how
fragile it is.
LyX developers are not in a position to fix this - it must
be fixed by latex developers. Unfortunately, latex
seems to progress very slowly.
You can fix this by:
* Keeping sectioning (headings) well away from the wrapped
region. Provide lots of plain text instead.
* Try varying the width of the wrap.
4) Also, the text always starts at the bottom of the graphic--like
"justified to bottom". How do I get the text to start at the top of the
graphic so it actually has something to wrap around?
You won't see the actual wrapping inside LyX.
(LyX is wysiwym, not wysiwyg. Explained in the intro.)
But you will see the wrapping in the output - when/if you
get that to work. If you don't like to experiment, don't
use the text wrap float. Perhaps LyX should include
a warning about how broken this particular feature is.
Console error is as follows:
Error: Bad bounding box in Type 3 glyph
Warning: Output is empty
Any idea what's going on here--why so many features are either reporting
errors or simply not working? This is from just one day with LyX.
One failure and lots of missing stuff.
note: I know essentially nothing about TeX or LaTeX, they must be
installed & working or the simple documents wouldn't be printing at all.
Well, TeX and LaTeX is not monolithic stuff. There are lots of
add-on packages for LaTeX - LyX support some of them but
then you have to install them to use them.
Note that DocBook is special and needs its own software.
Helge Hafting
