Darren Freeman wrote:
On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 13:17 +0200, Helge Hafting wrote:
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.
I personally think that LyX should include a warning about each and
every feature that doesn't work reliably for whatever reason, including
buggy software which LyX relies on.
Good idea - consider filing a bug report at bugzilla.lyx.org
about this. Text wrap is broken, and I don't think it'll be
fixed anytime soon either.
I was a new user once, and let me tell you the learning curve would be
less steep if I knew which things were meant for more experienced gurus
or which weren't working properly due to dodgy external software.
Are there anything else not working due to dodgy external
software? (I surely don't use all the external software LyX
supports myself.)
Please differentiate between the cases of dodgy software
and software that is merely missing on your system.
Missing software is merely a case of getting the
distribution dependencies right. (And a case of making
the distros distribute every latex package . . .)
Distributions ought to have several LyX packages:
* lyx-minimal (depends only on necessary libraries for running
the binary. For special uses like lyx without latex,
bootable CDs and minimalist machines.)
* lyx (also pulls in texlive and some other stuff so you can
print and use common stuff like graphichs and PDF)
* lyx-full (pulls in just about everything lyx can put to use,
leaving out only the really obvious like the windowing system.)
Maybe there should be an option for setting the interface to
Beginner/Experienced/Advanced.. and such things as the minibuffer and
View->DVI would appear by default when setting the appropriate level.
Maybe the levels can be defined by the contents of the different
manuals.
I don't know about hiding stuff. Stuff you don't understand
you just skip over until you have the time and interest for
testing it and finding out. A few "mysterious" menu items
don't really make LyX harder, for you don't have to use them.
All they do is tell "there is more."
And I wouldn't know what to hide. Surely not view->DVI,
that's the same as "print preview" . . . Well, one
form of print preview - LyX happens to have several.
I don't see how anyone could use LyX well without at
least one of these.
I thought the minibuffer was hidden by default these days,
perhaps I was wrong then. I hid it long ago to get
more screen space.
x I have read the Tutorial
x I have read the Users Guide
o I have read the Extended Features Guide
=> You have attained the level of Experienced. You will be promoted
again after slaying the Evil Red Toad.
Well, I foresee that a simplified "beginner" menu just
will get us lots of support cries like "Is this _all_? This LyX
can't do very much! What do you mean, I have to
select the "Advanced" menu to see that? Ouch, now my
menus look different, I was so used to the old one..."
Maybe we can upgrade the user based on how far they get with an inbuilt
multiple choices quiz :)
Well, a true beginner probably wouldn't know about the quiz,
just like the advanced menu items.
Some improvement is probably possible on the user interface,
but I don't think hiding stuff will help. Marking the text wrap
thing "broken" and putting warnings in dialogs where
it is easy to screw up, perhaps.
Helge Hafting
