Dave Hewitt wrote:
So I tried Paul's suggestion, and the resulting two files (yes, it
snapped again) are here:
http://www.vims.edu/fish/students/dhewitt/lyx/
The layout file is there too, as you made it.
The only thing that comes to mind is that I did use the "Save as
Document Defaults" button after I altered paper size and a few other
things upon first starting LyX. But, the article class is still the
default class. Perhaps I changed something in the defaults that's not
compatible? (I didn't change much at all, and I don't recall exactly
what I did change, but at the time it seemed reasonable.)
Nope, that ain't it.
We may (and I stress "may") be making progress here. I downloaded all
three of your files. I can open either LyX file in LyX 1.5.1 (on Win
XP) and convert from article to article (NRC) just fine, using my layout
file. Using your layout file, though, I reproduce the crustacean effect.
I'll skip over the forensic steps (and the "what was I drinking that
made me even think of them" part) and cut to the chase scene. My layout
file is coded (according to Notepad++) "ANSI as UTF-8". Yours is coded
UTF-8. Turns out either ANSI or "ANSI as UTF-8" works fine, but LyX
apparently can't read a non-ANSI UTF-8 layout file and keep a straight
face. (Developers are free to weigh in here with corrections if I'm wrong.)
Now this raises the twin questions of what changed the layout file to
UTF-8 at your end and how to avoid it next time. I'm thinking this is
one of those "what the heck is a codepage" moments. When you plopped
the layout file I sent into your directory, did you get it as a mail
client attachment, or did you have to cut it out of a message and paste
it into a text document? If the latter, and if you used the same editor
you employed to hack article.layout in the first place, then maybe that
editor thinks UTF-8 is the flavor of the month. If my version of the
layout file never passed through the editor used for your version, then
it's more likely to be an OS setting.
Why would LyX have an aversion to pissed-off crustaceans? Perhaps it's
just mimicking?
My thinking exactly. But now that we know the encoding is an issue, we
can concentrate on those darned alien crabs.
/Paul
