> LyX does much of what I need, but there are a few things I miss. Some > of these are related to what FrameMaker refer to as “object tags”, I > guess. In LyX: Graphics (click on a LyX graphics), under LaTeX and LyX > options: the possibility to define Graphics Groups is extremely > useful… when I import plots generated in MATLAB, I can assign the same > graphics group to these plots, and get a consistent size of these. If > I change the definition of the group, this immediately propagates to > all plots within the group. > > A key suggestion is to **extend** this to other objects. Thus: > 1. I have spent tens of hours trying to get a consistent look for > Program Listing. It would be really, really helpful if I can assign a > Program Listing to a “program listing group”, where I define computer > language, possible numbering of lines, location of line numbering, > fonts for line numbering, fonts for code, line breaks, tabs, etc.,etc. > Thus, I’d like to be able to define groups such as “Displayed-MATLAB”, > “InLine-MATLAB”, “Displayed-Python”, etc., etc. Such a possibility > would be priceless for getting a consistent look. > > 2. Similarly: styles for Floats would be useful. By default, all > floats seem to be left adjusted. I tend to use center adjustment of > figures/tables and caption. If I could set a default, or define a > group – that would be useful. >
These seem like sensible ideas. Feel free to file enhancement requests on the bug tracker. Probably much of the code can all but be reused. I.e., if you know any programming at all, you might well be able to do this yourself. Pavel Sanda wrote the graphics group code and is still active here, so he could give pointers, too. > 3. I tend to experiment a bit with my notation. What symbol should I > use for dimensionless variables? I have tried with math expressions > with bar decoration, with subscript asterisk, etc., etc. I should > probably have defined macros for this (but haven’t looked too much > into that possibility). > Yes, you should use macros for this. It is one of the things they are for. > Instead I have used the Math Find/Replace option. Advanced F&R is known to be...not as good as it could be. It could use some TLC, probably a serious rewrite, but it's not getting it at the moment. If you need to do serious replacement in this kind of way, then you are probably better off opening the LyX file in a good text editor and doing it there. (Back it up first!!) Or use a perl or python script. That's what a lot of people do. You can really do quite powerful things that way. It's one of the big advantages of LyX's native format being a text file. Of course, you have to learn a bit about the file format to do this, but you can always ask questions here. > It would be nice if there was an option so that ordinary text (i.e., > not enclosed in $.$ or $$.$$) is left out of the replacement. This seems independently a good idea. > When I preview documents, LyX often gives me error messages – which > very often are difficult to decipher. > > It would be useful with some improvement (if possible) in what exactly > is wrong when I get error messages, LyX is just relaying the error messages from LaTeX (assuming that is the backend you are using). These are known sometimes to be confusing. (Is there any compiler for which that is not true?) > and in which part of the document I should look for problems. LyX tries hard to do this. LaTeX reports the line on which the error is found, and LyX has a table that correlates those with positions in the LyX file. Failures to report the right location may be LyX bugs and can be reported as such. But LaTeX sometimes reports the error in weird places. An unclosed group, for example, wouldn't be noticed until some later point. > With the current level of information (ok – it may be that I simply > don’t understand how to debug), I essentially end up with a binary > search of the document… remove the last half of the document and see > if the error message persists, if persists, then re-insert the latter > part and remove the first quarter, etc., etc. Not particularly > efficient, and prone to “accidents”. So, even with raw LaTeX, this is often the best available strategy. Or asking at lyx-users first. Richard
