LyX (TeX specialized editor)

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Midas
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LyX (TeX specialized editor)

#1 Post by Midas »

A while ago I was recommended LyX as a specialized editor by fellow TPFC member Craunch (http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... hp?t=17709), but quickly found out it was way above my head to get it in portable form. Thus, I'm making this post to record info about LyX and possible portability -- nothing was tested here yet, so YMMV.

LyX wiki has a page dealing with a portable setup (https://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/PortableInstallation) -- not to be confused with how to make portable TeX documents (http://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/LyXWinTips#toc5). Another rather detailed portable setup guide, only in Spanish this time, is also available at [url]http://self_loving.blogspot.com/2013/10/lyx-portable-lleva-lyx-contigo-en-un-usb_20.html[/url].

A ready-made portable LyX package exists at SourceForge.net but is manifestly obsolete by being v2.0 and not updated since 2012: check https://sourceforge.net/projects/portable-lyx-20/; although deprecated, it might still be a good source for a working portable launcher.

About the same time a PortableApps.com discussion about making LyX portable took place and I'm inclined to believe it was the inception of the SF.net package (see http://portableapps.com/node/27981).

Moreover, a separated Lyx offer for Windows exists that purports to install a complete environment and contains plenty of related documentation, but it is outdated as well: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lyxwininstaller/.
http://www.lyx.org/Home wrote:LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM) and not simply their appearance (WYSIWYG). LyX combines the power and flexibility of TeX/LaTeX with the ease of use of a graphical interface. This results in world-class support for creation of mathematical content (via a fully integrated equation editor) and structured documents like academic articles, theses, and books. In addition, staples of scientific authoring such as reference list and index creation come standard.
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Latest LyX release is currently v2.20 (announcement at http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/NewInLyX22) and installers can be downloaded from http://www.lyx.org/Download.

shnbwmn
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Re: LyX (TeX specialized editor)

#2 Post by shnbwmn »

If you'll allow me to indulge ...

One only needs to take a look at Donald Knuth's TeXbook to appreciate the rigor and beauty of the TeX system.
Knuth wrote:... TeX is primarily concerned with high-quality technical manuscripts: Its emphasis is on art and technology ... If you merely want to produce a passably good document—something acceptable and basically readable but not really beautiful—a simpler system will usually suffice. With TeX the goal is to produce the finest quality; this requires more attention to detail, but you will not find it much harder to go the extra distance, and you’ll be able to take special pride in the finished product.
Also take a look at the beautiful Memoir manual. By contrast, the ConTeXt manual has clearly been typeset for screen-based ingest, and as such suffers considerable degradation of quality. Note that both aforementioned classes are available in the portable MiKTeX and TeXLive distributions.

Btw Midas, have you heard of Tufte handouts? I chanced on it via RMarkdown, and it is displays fantastically here. There exists a Tufte-LaTeX package as well as Tufte-CSS for webpages. On your original request thread you mentioned needing:
Midas wrote:... the ability [to] work with different scripts ... and to have multiple text and note streams in same/consecutive pages ...
... but back on topic.
________________________________________________________
Midas wrote:... a PortableApps.com discussion about making LyX portable took place ... (see http://portableapps.com/node/27981).
Midas wrote:LyX wiki has a page dealing with a portable setup (https://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/PortableInstallation) ...
Having been unsatisfied with the PAF LyX, which requires messing around with many separate packages and the strict use of PAF's folder organisation, I tried out the method described on the LyX wiki. It works with the latest LyX/MiKTeX versions, saving settings to a "userdir" folder within the LyX directory. I haven't tested whether it is stealth. I'm also not sure whether everything works as intended.

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Midas
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Re: LyX (TeX specialized editor)

#3 Post by Midas »

shnbwmn wrote:If you'll allow me to indulge ...
Please, be my guest. :wink:

And thanks for all the nice reference material.

shnbwmn wrote:Btw Midas, have you heard of Tufte handouts? I chanced on it via RMarkdown, and it is displays fantastically here. There exists a Tufte-LaTeX package as well as Tufte-CSS for webpages.
I have now -- I knew of Edward Tufte as an author, but not of all this TeX related stuff. It'll take me months to digest it... :lol:

shnbwmn wrote:On your original request thread you mentioned needing:
Midas wrote:... the ability [to] work with different scripts ... and to have multiple text and note streams in same/consecutive pages ...
Yes, I did. One example that jumps straight out is this translation of a classic manuscript that already had two sets of notes in the original: footnotes and sidenotes. Those have to be translated and laid out in a juxtaposed manner (odd pages for original text, even ones for translation), keeping those notes and managing additional sets of translation/critical notes. Did you mean to make a suggestion regarding that?

shnbwmn wrote:Having been unsatisfied with the PAF LyX, which requires messing around with many separate packages and the strict use of PAF's folder organisation, I tried out the method described on the LyX wiki. It works with the latest LyX/MiKTeX versions, saving settings to a "userdir" folder within the LyX directory. I haven't tested whether it is stealth. I'm also not sure whether everything works as intended.
I intend to check that -- eventually. Thanks again for the valuable input.

shnbwmn
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Re: LyX (TeX specialized editor)

#4 Post by shnbwmn »

Midas wrote:One example that jumps straight out is this translation of a classic manuscript that already had two sets of notes in the original: footnotes and sidenotes. Those have to be translated and laid out in a juxtaposed manner (odd pages for original text, even ones for translation), keeping those notes and managing additional sets of translation/critical notes. Did you mean to make a suggestion regarding that?
Well, Tufte's style is based on just such a setup, where you need support for lots of side-notes/additional information, in a format that looks professional and highly readable. I figured that, in particular, Tufte-LaTeX would be a good starting point/springboard for creating and customising this format in a (La)TeX editor. It's also a good reference for information design, especially for classical manuscript material.

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Midas
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Re: LyX (TeX specialized editor)

#5 Post by Midas »

Oh, I see (now). Thanks again.

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Midas
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Re: LyX (TeX specialized editor)

#6 Post by Midas »

LyX v2.3.0 released, dated 2018-03-16 (changelog at https://www.lyx.org/News).

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