>
> I agree it would be nice. But it's almost impossible. The problem is that
> (La)TeX provides multiple ways (packages) for achieving the same thing. LyX
> will never be able to support them all, so either your LaTeX collaborators
> will needs to know what LyX supports (which is not what they will want to
> know) or the LyX file will be cluttered with ERT. Also, some of the non-tex-
> relevant information will get lost on the way.
>
> So, like Pavel already notes, if you collaborate intensely with LaTeX users,
> using a LaTeX editor is probably much more adequate.
>
> Jürgen
I think that most people who want collaboration with LaTeX people assume that
the way to do this as by LyX editing LaTeX directly, and they pass this idea on
to this list, where it is (quite rightly) rejected as infeasible. I know very
little about the implementation of LyX, so I'm sorry to be presumptuous, but it
seems to me that there's a design idea that hasn't been cosidered.
Putting the LyX editing LaTeX idea diagrammatically we have (requires
fixed-width font):
original.tex
|
| (edit in LyX)
v
updated.tex
My suggestion is:
original.tex --> original.lyx
| / |
| / | (edit in LyX)
v L v
updated.tex <-- updated.lyx
Note that in the final step, updated.tex is produced by assembling *all three*
other files. I would envisage such a program working by comparing the two .lyx
files (presumably using LyX change tracking), then only exporting updates to
.tex, and finally slotting them into the unaltered parts of original.tex. I
would imagine original.lyx would need internal references to original.tex to
help determine where any updates would go.
This could potentially be a separate program, just as tex2lyx is (which
incidentally is the top, rightward arrow in that diagram).
I think this would be much more realistic than getting LyX to edit LaTeX
directly. That does not make it easy in absolute terms though! And it has
downsides (such as it not really being possible to edit the preamble this way;
I
don't think that's a big deal though). But I thought I should at least bring
up
the idea.
Jim
