[Tex/LaTex] LyX participates in the Google Summer of Code – which project ideas could be suggested

lyx

This year, LyX participates in the Google Summer of Code. This is a great opportunity to get improvements and new features implemented. I appreciate that LyX makes entering the TeX and LaTeX world easier, I'm sure there are many LaTeX users who started with it. And for sure, many LaTeX friends use LyX for rapid writing.

So this question goes to both LyX and LaTeX users, who are interested in supporting the GUI way of TeX and LaTeX:

Which improvements would you suggest to the LyX project?

I.e. which feature do you miss, what would you suggest as a project idea? We will make sure that the LyX project will see the ideas here.

Postscript (added by Charles)

The LyX team have put up a page with their project proposals at LyX 2013 Summer of Code Ideas. The deadline (May 3rd) has passed.

Best Answer

I know there are already many LaTeX online compilers. Once I thought, it would be great to have an online LyX editor, so I don't need to install a whole TeX distribution and the LyX software on my computer. But I know it would be challenging to port a complete GUI to the web. So my suggestion would be:

Making the LyX program capable of using online LaTeX compilers.

This means having an API and usable connections to existing online services. I'm sure the vendors of such services would support it. So a user could simply install LyX, and benefit from the newest TeX version without installing it - slim but capable and up-to-date installations would be possible.

File storage services such as dropbox could be connected, the storage of an online compiling service used, or files could simply be uploaded each time when being compiled - LaTeX files are small, and compressed uploads or syncs would be quick.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] In LyX, is there a way to toggle the display of TeX code in math expressions

There is not a built-in toggle that I know of. But you can create one yourself by using a command sequence. First place your cursor in front of the math expression that you want to convert to LaTeX. Press alt+x to go to the command buffer (or go to view>toolbars>command buffer and then click on it at the bottom). Enter the following command and press return:

command-sequence char-forward; line-end-select ; cut; char-backward; paste; char-delete-forward`

This works for me. Does it work for you? If it works, make a shortcut for it. And then when you want to go back, just select the LaTeX code and do Ctrl + m.

Here are some additional suggestions:

go to View > Code Preview Pane to get a look at the LaTeX code around where your cursor is.
if you put your cursor inside the math box, copy (but don't copy the entire math box), go outside of math, and paste, it will paste the LaTeX code. To turn that LaTeX code back into the math symbols, highlight it, and press Ctrl + m.

[Tex/LaTex] LyX Error: Could not find LaTeX command for character ” (code point 0x2009)

The error is somewhat misleading as one might read the quotation mark as the offending character, when in fact the actual offending character is a thin space (see http://www.unicodemap.org/details/0x2009/index.html).

When copying from certain applications such as Adobe Reader, unicode characters such as thin and thick spaces, en-dashes, and ellipsis are copied. The problem arises when pasting this into LyX (and other text editors). These accept unicode characters as valid plain text characters even if LaTeX does not map them to the relevant characters in the fonts and it will happen regardless of the encoding chosen in the documents source code.

I do not have a general solution to your problem other than hunting down the offending spaces and replacing them with regular spaces, which is a quite tedious task. For a longer text you should use search and replace. I hope others can suggest a more automated solution.

Postscript (added by Charles)

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Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] In LyX, is there a way to toggle the display of TeX code in math expressions

[Tex/LaTex] LyX Error: Could not find LaTeX command for character ” (code point 0x2009)

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