On 5/05/2011 12:32 p.m., Charlie wrote:
If a vote is being taken on this feature request. I would rather that it doesn't happen, so please put me down as a "no". Please don't do it. There are plenty of spreadsheet programs and if you haven't completed your work in the program you use, why would you place it into a LyX document and edit it anyway? LyX is great as is. Thank you, Charlie
I think I have confused people, perhaps because I used the phrase 'LyX office suite' (but in quotes -- it was meant with a certain tongue-in-cheek quality) and mentioned the word spreadsheet.
I meant something more on these lines: you have a table in LyX with a few columns of figures; you want the totals of the columns, perhaps a grand total. The numbers aren't at this point fixed. New data may arise as you work on your document. Yes you could open a spreadsheet program but it's just two or three columns and there's a certain overkill about that.
Alternatively, you can put \usepackage{spreadtab} in your preamble and, as things are at present, open an ERT inset, write \begin{spreadtab}{{tabular}{|c|c|c|}}, construct the table with the figures, ampersands, newline markers \\, spreadtab's sum() command, and finish with \end{spreadtab}. It's now there in your document easily accessible for any adjusted figures to be entered. This is what I do now. LyX doesn't do any calculating.
But it is easier to enter figures and text into a table in LyX proper rather than ERT. My request was for a button on the table toolbar that would change LyX's \begin{tablular}{|c|c|c|} into \begin{spreadtab}{{tabular}{|c|c|c|}}, and \end{tabular} into \end{spreadtab}, and a few 'tidying up' operations like replacing \tabularnewline with \\. Again, no request that LyX acquire calculating abilities. Rather, the ability to replace one environment, tabular, with another, spreadtab. The calculational abilities are in spreadtab and, as far as LyX is concerned, are a side-effect of the environment change. LyX doesn't need to acquire spreadsheet capabilities. I have no wish to see it heading down the road of OpenOffice.
Andrew
