>>>>> "Matej" == Matej Cepl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Matej> Jean-Marc Lasgouttes wrote: >> Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'll try to answer to some of >> your concerns. Matej> Thanks, Jean-Marc, for answering. I was really getting worried Matej> that my report about LyX's death were not that exaggerated Matej> (BTW, it is so over-quoted citation, that I was not able to Matej> google its canonical form :-), when no-one replied to my Matej> message for some time, but it was probably caused by the Matej> external factors (i.e., New Year :-). As far as I am concerned, I answer immediately when the answer is obvious. If I feel others will be more qualified to answer, I wait a bit until this mailing list does its magic. If I feel qualified to answer but it deserve some thought, I keep it for later (and unfortunately tend to forget about it :(). You fell in this last category... Matej> Would you share some thoughts when 1.4.0 will go out? At least Matej> some really haphazard (but hopefully at least somehow educated) Matej> guess would be helpful. I do not know really. Let's say a few month. It really depends on whether some of the coders can find some time to work on it (sad, isn't it?). >> Also, we have a growing interest for the native OSX and Windows >> versions, and I hope this is going to help attract other people to >> help. Matej> Just contrary to what Steve writes, I would think that if Matej> dropping anything then I would let XForms go and made LyX into Matej> a first-class KDE citizen. I guess xforms will be eventually dropped, but definitely not in 1.4.x. Anyway, it is not the existence of the xforms port that slows the development of LyX 1.4.x. Most of the problems are in the kernel (which is now nice enough to be understandable, but still has too many bugs). Matej> The impulse for writing the original email (or making otherwise Matej> trivial message into this kind of long novel) was my first Matej> slightly more deep looking into OpenOffice.org. I have found Matej> two things: a) that it sucks in many more ways than I could Matej> imagine, b) it is absolutely unbelievable how easily I could Matej> change things with a little effort -- when I found myself Matej> fixing Docbook export filters (it is just a piece of XSLT after Matej> all; some 40 lines of XSLT templates gave me an export of Matej> Bibliography to docbook) and adding key shortcut support for Matej> inline styles (36 lines of StarBasic), I've got really sick Matej> from LyX that it cannot do things like that. Adding key shortcuts to anything is doable. And we have a command-sequence function that allows for _very_ rudimentary macros. But the support is indeed very weak. >> char-transpose has been available since 1.2.0, I think. Of course, >> this does not mean the problem is not real. Matej> Sorry, then I've made a wrong example, but the point is still Matej> valid, IMHO. Yes. Matej> When times when I hoped that bugs are going to be fixed, I Matej> filed some bugs about them -- 253, http://bugzilla.lyx.org/show_bug.cgi?id=253 Superfluous protecting {} We could remove the code that adds {} before `, since it is really a hack. I know what the ``real'' solution is, but it would be too intrusive for my taste (at this point in development). I can try to think of a less annoying hack. Matej> 254 (I really hate this), http://bugzilla.lyx.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254 Additional information in status bar -- biggest overfull/underfull & no. of pages Number of pages should not be too difficult to add. For overfull/underfull warnings, we need to be able to handle 'warnings' besides errors, so that we can place them in the document where they belong. A bit more difficult. Matej> 676, http://bugzilla.lyx.org/show_bug.cgi?id=676 LyX finds mathed start when looking for '$' This is ``fixed'' in 1.4.0cvs because LyX does not search in mathed anymore. Matej> 421 (I don't care that much), http://bugzilla.lyx.org/show_bug.cgi?id=421 Export to ASCII does not export bibliography and references It seems to be fixed now, but Jose' knows better than I do. Matej> 454 (but that is probably too big to resolved anytime soon). Yes, this is something people have in mind, but we are not ready for it yet. Matej> Now I would add these ones: Matej> annotations support: Guys, sneak somewhere to some Windows Matej> computer and take a look at M$-Word 2003+ and what it can do Matej> with revision marks, comments, etc. I have a tendency to write Matej> _a lot_ of comments into document I write and I want to be able Matej> to print them, but not always (when giving a draft to my Matej> supervisor for example). LyX 1.4.0 will have support for branches, which should fulfill this need. There is also expanded support for notes and comments. Matej> - full-size KDE-ization, because of clipboard which sucks, Matej> missing session recovery, and other stuff, Session recovery seems to be something that is done at Qt level anyway. Clipboard also, I do not think that KDEization will be a magic bullet for that. Matej> - Unicodization (related to previous) -- at least to the level Matej> of what \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} can support, which is not Matej> much I know. Guys, it is 2005 now! Definitely needed. Matej> - Docbook bibliography support (after being spoiled by LyX's Matej> support of BibTeX, I just cannot live without Insert/Citation Matej> Reference working) I have to pass on this one. Matej> - abbreviations (let's not stirr up anti-M$ passions and let's Matej> not call it Autocorrections :-) -- vim has them (":he abbr"), Matej> Emacs has them, why cannot LyX them as well (of course, Matej> switched off on default or with an empty list of Matej> abbreviations)? There used to be something like that in mathed, I do not know what the current status is. I am not very font of them personnally. Matej> - documents revisions (hopefully, it is coming in 1.4.*), but Matej> how is it going to work with RCS/CVS? The word is that change tracking is completely broken by the 1.4.0cvs changes and that we may have to diable it. I hope we will be able to do something about it... I do not think there is a useful interaction with CVS currently, but this would be useful. Matej> - in longer horizont thorough XMLification: * in the first run Matej> Docbook XML (hopefully in 1.4.*?), In 1.4.0 XML support will be much better, but of course we keep the same kind of file format (although with better structure). Matej> then bibliography support for Docbook, * later ... well, Matej> actually, why not switch LyX to save its files in some kind of Matej> subset of OASIS Document format (what is going to be a native Matej> format of OOo 2.0, KOffice, and possibly even AbiWord)? Just Matej> throwing the thought here -- it will certainly need a long Matej> dicsussing. Is there too much supported by AMSTeX and not Matej> supported by MathML (which is part of OOo OASIS format)? We have a patch that changes the file format to XML with a well-defined DTD, but this will have to wait for 1.5.0. Concerning the OASIS format, I am not sure it would be suitable for our needs. >> I will deliberately avoid to mention features that are now only on >> the roadmap, since they are just vapour now. Matej> Is there such list available somewhere -- I would be interested Matej> even if it is vaporware for some time. >From the top of my head... Things that should happen in 1.3.6: - a supported windows port (with the free Qt/Win library) - Key bindings to switch to previous/next document (simple, but has been requested for a long time) Things that will be in 1.4.0: - tex2lyx (a C++ implementation) - lyxclient (allows to interact with a running lyx) - branches, character styles, better notes, better external inset - better Docbook/XML/whatever support - the kernel rewrite means that some inconveniences like the fact that Find opens all the footnotes of the document are gone. - and most importantly, a (admitedly very basic) word count feature :) Things that will not be in 1.4.0, but probably in 1.5.0: - XML file format (a patch exists) - multiple windows (it seems it is really getting closer) JMarc
