Hi Alex, I am subscribed to this list, but not yet involved much in LyX development. Most (almost all) here are much more knowledgeable and experienced than me, so remember that when you read this response; however, I do have some suggestions that might help you get started.
If you are going to work with layouts, the first thing to do IMHO would be to create or modify one manually. How to do this is documented in the LyX customization manual. This manual can be accessed by going to help->customization from within LyX. There is also some information on the wiki at http://wiki.lyx.org/Layouts/CreatingLayouts and http://wiki.lyx.org/Layouts/Layouts As an example, you could make a custom layout for the article class that displays all of the section titles in red (within LyX). Alternatively, you could write a small module which may be an easier way to get started, since a module is almost like a mini layout. Once you have a good idea about how LaTeX .cls and .sty files are used to define document styles, and how .layout files and/or modules are used in conjunction with these to control the look and feel within LyX and support the functionality of the underlying .cls and .sty files, then it will be time to think about how to automate this process with a program. The nice thing about this project is that although it will probably share some of LyX's existing libraries, it might be done as a standalone application, which provides a lot more latitude in the design decisions. A preliminary todo list might look like this: 0) Get LyX and LaTeX installed. 1) Use LyX to write a simple document. 2) Change document classes and see how both the output and the internal LyX look changes. Notice any new or missing entries in the little drop-down menu in the upper-left corner. 3) Change the look inside LyX by modifying the .layout file, or by putting code into the window under document->settings->Local Layout. 4) Start looking at more advanced layouts (like the beamer one, for example), and think about how to automate the layout file generation... Again, this is just an effort to help you get started, and should you get conflicting advice from one of the real developers, you should listen to them. Jacob On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 8:31 PM, Alexander Nord <an...@reed.edu> wrote: > Hi, > > I'm Alex. I'm a junior at Reed College in Portland, OR. > > I think what you guys are doing sounds awesome, and I'd love to apply to > take on the > "Layout Editor" project. I've never done GSoC (or, for that matter any > professional > programming) before, and I'm feeling a little daunted approaching the > application process, > so any advice on how to get my application rolling would be enormously > appreciated! > > Thanks, > > Alex Nord > an...@reed.edu >
