On 2009-11-10, Helge Hafting wrote: > Enrico Forestieri wrote: >>> ... Besides this, mhchem is our third package that is >>> automatically loaded when formulas are edited.
More are automatically added by Unicode conversion. We might need some package selection/deselection scheme for these too. > Many packages clash. Try inserting every symbol available under > Insert->Symbol, there is something like three different \phone > for example. > My idea for a generic fix: > * When LyX "supports" some package, then it should have a list of all > commands defined by that package. Would be nice but hard to make sure in reality (as packages tend to introduce new commands with new versions). > * When two packages conflict, LyX resolves this automatically by > loading one package and renaming all conflicting symbols before > the next package is loaded. Do you consider storing the current expansion under a new name with \let? How do you find out whether the "conflicting" symbol in the next package is something completely different or an actually intended re-definition of the original command? > Latex nameclashes then becomes a thing of the past with LyX. LyX should (and AFAIK does) never automatically add conflicting packages. It should select the one \phone-providing package that works best with the rest of supported packages (usually the de-facto standard or LaTeX-developer-recommended one). Also, math macros should be searched for definitions *before* autoloading a package providing a "supported" command. (AFAIK, this is fixed now.) The problem are definitions in the LaTeX preamble and ERT (direct or via loading of packages). > One can then debate the implementation details. Should renaming happen > only when two conflicting packages are in use? That gives the cleanest > latex code. But exported latex code will vary depending on how > many packages are in use. Bad (Confusing). > Or always rename any command that might clash with other > supported packages? This simplifies LyX, and gives consistent latex > code. The same latex command is always output the same way, no matter > if a conflicting package is in use or not. Not feasible/sensible for *any* command. > A third option is to effectively implement namespaces in latex, by > renaming all commands defined by packages. Simple to implement, but > the generated latex will be unfamiliar. Namespaces are good. However, if it were simple to implement there would be a package for it already. > Latex->LyX conversions with such renamed symbols is easy. The new name > can simply be the old name with a prefix. Such as \cf -> \lyx_chem_cf. Unfortunately, \lyx_chem_cf is invalid: TeX commands cannot contain any "separator" if they are intended for "normal" use. There is @ for internal or package use and there is the ability to use "arbitrary" strings via \cname ... \endcname but this results in documents with unreadable LaTeX source. Günter
