I *like* the way LyX handles it. I give my equations labels which _make_sense_ to me as a physicist---like "Poisson-Eqn"---not having to coddle to the structure of the paper. If I want to refer to the equation 20 pages later, I don't have to go back and find the number and adapt the label or the references, nor do I have to worry about renumbering if anything changes. The cross-reference system built into Lyx/LaTeX takes care of that.
My only objection is the (perhaps apocryphal, but lodged in my brain since I've used LyX for about a decade now) requirement/suggestion to put dashes in place of spaces in one's labels. ________________________________ From: bieniasz <nbbie...@cyf-kr.edu.pl> To: lyx-users@lists.lyx.org Sent: Thursday, August 8, 2013 8:06 AM Subject: Re: formula numbering Richard Heck <rgheck <at> lyx.org> writes: > What happens, then, when you add a new equation somewhere in > the middle of the document? This is what LyX already does - it updates automatically the equation numbers. My point is why one cannot use these numbers for referencing the equations in the text, since they are already there, up-to-date. > There has often been talk about automatic labelling, so that the > equation would have its own "magic" label, so to speak, and you > could reference it without needing to make up a label. But no one > has found the need pressing enough to do it. This is difficult to understand for me. LaTeX users are primarily scientists who write scientific texts. In such text one ALWAYS refers to equations by numbers, and not by any peculiar labels. > Still, making up a label isn't that hard, and it can make it easier > to remeber which equation you want to reference later. You can > of course just use numbers if you wish. Well, yes and no. If I use my own labels, like E1, E2, E3 etc., then I am in trouble when I need to add something between E1 and E2, let's say. The problem is that user-defined labels are not automatically updated, whereas the real equation numbers are. Hence, I have a mess in which labels are in no clear relation to the numbers. So, in conclusion, I daresay the LaTeX/LyX system for equation numbering needs a reasonable revision. If there are any LyX programmers out there, please do something about this!!! Leslaw
