On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:24 AM, Jürgen Spitzmüller <sp...@lyx.org> wrote:
> a.) the default is what the classes does (i.e., "always center content" is an
> opt-in, not an opt-out)
>
Yes.
> b.) this stuff is not physically hardcoded, but globally settable (for
> instance, as I have proposed, via \lyxtablesettings and \lyxfiguresettings
> macros)
>
Jürgen is much more authoritative on matters LaTeX than I am, but I
would heartily advise against that. This is the slippery slope that
Scientific WorkPlace had taken, one of the reasons users find
objectionable to work in SWP (i.e., a plethora of SWP-defined macros
in the preamble) and to collaborate with other LaTeX authors.
It was one thing to have \lyxframe{} for Beamer presentations (you
don't need to submit that to a journal), but it's a completely
different thing to have it in "pure" article documents. LaTeX
collaborators would most likely not appreciate having "obscure" macros
in their documents. And I would not be surprised if some journals
refused papers containing funny macro definitions.
As far as I'm concerned, solutions like \lyxtablesettings or
\lyxfiguresettings are a big no-go: The closer we stick to default
LaTeX behaviour and the more transparent we are (the LyX "mantra"),
the better chances we have to attract LaTeX users (and avoid losing
current users). We don't want to become another obscure SWP-like
solution. And remember the long and heated debates on default font
selections that we had, and what we chose: Do nothing, educate users,
and leave defaults to LaTeX?
I may state the obvious here, but why not solve this in a very simple
UI-interaction way. Most current users of LyX who need centered
content within floats will usually do the following:
- insert a float
- paragraph settings > centered
Why not assist them in that? Have an option somewhere "Use centered
paragraph in floats by default" (opt-in) that, if checked, would
simply do command-sequence for the two actions above. Problem solved.
You will object that this strays away from the concept of the
"semantic" markup idea. But as it is LyX users do not use this concept
in the context of floats. I don't see why rendering more
straightforward what they were already doing be worse? And again,
while I appreciate the concept of "semantic" markup, I believe it can
quickly get out of hands with more complicated constructs (as in this
case).
Another objection is that "A big disadvantage of this idea is that it
is static. " And I agree; but as discussed above, I see more value in
adopting a simple, straightforward UI solution (even if imperfect) or
in adopting no solution at all (and letting users do their centering
and copy/pasting as before), rather than putting complex LaTeX
structures in (what outsiders will doubtless perceive as) obscure
LyX-specific macros.
Anyways, my 00.02€,
Liviu
> For tabulars and algorithm floats,font size would be a further useful option.
>
