Hi all,
I'm not going to call this a bug. I suppose the explanation is rooted in a
mistake I made, followed by ignoring a warning. However, I think this
represents a MAJOR useability problem and should be addressed, if only to
protect the user from himself.
This is the second time I lost all the custom styles in my LyX file because
the document class reverted back to Article. I had already done a lot of
work, so I didn't want to revert back to a 1 hour old backup, although in
retropsect that would have been easier and safer.
My LyX file keeps reverting to a blank document class. I have a feeling it's
something in my \frontmatter, but can't be sure. Basically, any time I do
anything involving Document->settings, my custom document class goes away.
There's a little warning, but nothing that says DANGER, YOUR SOURCE FILE HAS
JUST LOST EVERY CUSTOM ENVIRONMENT AS WELL AS CHAPTERS, AND IF YOU SAVE IT IT
WILL COST YOU HOURS OF WORK. IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, ABORT THIS LYX SESSION
WITHOUT SAVING AND RESUME FROM A BACKUP!!!!!
One might surmise that I'm being careless or stupid by repeatedly getting into
this situation. I suppose that's true, but please remember that when I'm
writing a book, I'm thinking like a writer trying to pound out 2000 words a
day rather than thinking like a computer professional. I don't think a small
mistake on my part should result in hours of blown work.
The other problem is the warning is so mild and inconclusive that one might
not know when the custom environments went away, and therefore one wouldn't
know which backup to restore, or even how much work has been done since the
environments vanished. In my case, I found out only because I looked at the
table of contents and saw all the numbers began with 0. If I hadn't looked at
the TOC -- if I'd just concentrated on whomping out words, it could have been
a couple hours before discovering the problem, and of course by then I'd have
no idea when the environments vanished or why.
I really think we need a MUCH stronger warning when LyX decides to dump the
current document class in favor of the default.
Thanks
SteveT
Steve Litt
Books written in LyX:
Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist
Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting: Just the Facts
