On Fri, 28 Dec 2002, Darren Freeman wrote:
> On Sat, 2002-12-28 at 07:23, Bruce Sass wrote:
> > On Thu, 27 Dec 2002, Darren Freeman wrote:
> > > > > So I would say this: apart from obvious shortening of bloated symbols,
> > > > > leave them readable (and compatible!). As long as gzipping becomes the
> > > > > standard, that's a good thing since it's a tiny penalty for a large
> > > > > gain.
> > > >
> > > > Frankly, I consider it a hack.
> >
> > ya, also, "tiny" and "large" are relative
> >
> > I think the gain would depend on the situation; negative in the case
> > of nothing but small live files, huge for archives of large files.
> > Is one group more important than the other?
>
> No. But how many "small" LyX files have you seen lately? =)
That is all I usually see. Lately I've been importing programs
(scripts of a few K, those small and poorly documented system level
bits of code I've generated) by wrapping them with LyX or LaTeX and
NoWeb. I'll get around to generating the templates for the wrappers
directly from .lyx files sooner or later. So, I'm doing both small
files and editor manipulations.
> > Making compressed the default is raising the bar wrt systems LyX is
> > usable with, for no clear benefit. An old slow box can probably get a
> > new HD, cheap, but it is a lot tougher to cope with running out of CPU
> > cycles, memory, or patience...
>
> I never said make it the *only* choice, just the default. Those that
> have slow boxes will most probably be clever enough to deselect a
> checkbox (or change the extension).
Making compressed the default means that in addition to uncompressing
that tarball I just downloaded, I'll have to wait for LyX to
uncompress the .lyx files in it. If I manually uncompress packaged
stuff it will be left behind as cruft when a new version of the
package is installed (the files don't appear in the package manager's
DB)... but I guess that wouldn't matter 'cause I'd be going in to
uncompress the LyX User's Guide anyways.
I would much rather see LyX default to using the fastest method
possible with respect to file handling, even if that means a less
human readable .lyx... but compressing everything is the kind of
thing best handled by a filesystem (imo). I mean, if I want to
encrypt everything I install CFS, do "cattach secret-lyx-files" and
work as normal, if my system can handle or I'm willing to put up with
the overhead.
> > I would love to see LyX transparently handle *.lyx.{gz,bz2,zip,?} or
> > *.ly{g,b,z,?} (respectively), but it should be up to the user to
> > determine what the default behaviour will be.
>
> Of course.
>
> > Maybe system and user preference options like `default compression
> > method', `enable automatic (re)compression', `compressed file suffix
> > style (force it or not)', ..., along with a `save as compressed' menu
> > item or [none, gzip, bzip, zip, ?], etc. radio buttons in a `save
> > file' dialog, eh.
>
> Too many options bamboozle newbies. I know ;) Most people won't have an
> issue with compressing new files, I expect. Many won't even know the
> difference.
Ok, so put them in an "advanced options" dialog/submenu, with
defaults set to the status quo. ;)
- Bruce
