Jean-Marc Lasgouttes wrote:
Helge> This I don't understand at all. When LyX launch a viewer, then
Helge> surely that viewer runs on the same platform as LyX itself? You
Helge> can have different "viewer blacklists" for windows-lyx,
Helge> mac-lyx, and linux-lyx if you need.
When LyX launches a viewer, it just tells the OS "open this file". We
do not know what the viewer is.
On linux, we know that very well. The viewer is specified in
.lyx/prefences, a file created and maintained by lyx. That is
where I changed the preference from acrobat to xpdf, once
xpdf became good enough. LyX even have a GUI for this, I
remember translating it.
(tools->preferences->file formats, then click on whatever
format you want to specify a viewer for.)
Entries in the update and view menus are already suppressed
when no viewer exists for the format. It can't be that hard
to add an extra check, suppressing the "view->update" entry
if the viewer configured matches a blacklist.
Maybe lyx-windows doesn't have this part, as windows
have such a mechanism in the os. But this mechanism
can be queried to find the viewers configured - if someone
is interested in suppressing dysfunctional update menu
entries on that platform.
Such a blacklist is easy, it will at least catch "acroread"
but of course it won't be entirely perfect.
Why not aim for "good enough"? Lyx will sure work in
a nonsatisfactory way if you have a broken latex or a viewer
that segfaults before it manages to open a window. We don't
check for that either.
Helge Hafting
