LyX: Open-source word processor for mathematicians/academics | Hacker News Reader

LyX: Open-source word processor for mathematicians/academics

lyx.org

19 pointslunchbox18 comments

I wrote two small math books in LyX: http://hilomath.com

It was interesting. It's nice in a lot of ways; LyX manages to combine the kind of continuous preview you get with a full WYSIWYG word processor with the more abstract organizational features of LaTex. Not to mention the kick ass typesetting quality, especially for math.

The current site (which I'm a bit embarrassed to show - I have a much nicer looking one in the works) is generated from the LyX source, as a bunch of mostly static php pages. Its replacement is a django site that is also fully generated; I just type 'make site', which exports LyX to latex, converts to html via latex2html, and so on.

I have a plan for a third book. And as nice as LyX is, I'm wondering if I want to try docbook or something for it. The reason is I found it sometimes hard to convert things fully into an html document that fully takes advantage of the medium. LaTeX (and hence LyX) was made first and foremost for documents that are physically printed, and sometimes there's an impedance mismatch.

But LyX ain't bad, and I doubt any alternative is a magic bullet. Anyone have any experience writing books like this? What do you use?

LyX is nice, but I eventually got frustrated with it and went back to emacs+xdvi. Nothing beats a well-customized emacs for me.

Emacs actually has similar functionality to LyX (I don't use it, so I don't know how well it works) in preview-latex:

http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/preview-latex.html

I got frustrated with it and just use TextMate. It has a latex-typeset command. It was command-B, but its command-E now I think. It integrates really well with BibTex with autocompletion of sources. I setup some nice macros to auto do certain mundane typing tasks and all-in-all I really like it.

This looks pretty good, been looking for something a little more powerful then open office for research papers.

This looks like it may fit the bill without making it completely text based like *TEX.

Right. LyX is a graphical front-end to LaTeX, meaning it can do virtually anything LaTeX can do. I'm a pretty avid user, since I also find that Word/OpenOffice lack many features that scientists use.

I'd be cautious if I was you...I don't know how much it has changed, but 4 years ago I tried using LyX to avoid LaTeX, but got so frustrated I just resorted to learning LaTeX and sticking with that.

There is also GNU Texmacs:

http://www.texmacs.org/

It's excellent, but from what I can tell it's neither TeX nor Emacs. An odd name, but good software nonetheless. (You can export to TeX if you want, but that's not its native format.)

I use EXP because it lets me write about 25% faster than I write by hand (with a bunch of macros and keyboard shortcuts I don't even the mouse to click on various symbols, like most WYSIWYG editors).

http://www.expswp.com/

I wrote the following in about a cumulative hour using EXP:

http://math.uic.edu/~robertk/files/mth504_notes.pdf

I've used and seen many people use various math typesetting editors, and from my experience EXP lets you be the most productive (not good for research papers, but very good for writing homework, notes, etc.).

Hmm looks kind of expensive though. Does it really justify the price?

Oh, right. I got it for free. :)

I love LaTeX for docs that simply use one of the built-in documentclasses -- and which use no extra packages or custom commands or environments.

I strongly dislike it for anything else. Getting anything non-default to work right has always been a major headache for me.

Also, conversion to html should be easier. Last time I looked, latex2html was pretty much unmaintained and also a bear to even get installed (if your OS doesn't already provide a package for it).

Texinfo might be a good substitute for LaTeX, but it's a bit clunky with manually specifying menus (nodes and sections)... though I know that Emacs will do that for you.

TexShop (http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/) is nice if you are writing on a Mac. The editor is not quite as nice as TextMate, but everything is nicely integrated.

Putting aside any possible biases, anyone interested in an easy to use LaTeX-like program should give Microsoft's Word 2007 a shot. The new equation editor and symbols functionality is quite powerful, and incredibly easy to use.

Easier to use than typing something like:

  Here is an equation: $y = x^{2x + 1}$.

Probably not. GUIs trade learning for speed. You never have to learn anything, but you'll never be fast. The GUI will always be in your way, slowing down your work. TeX is the opposite -- you have to read a lot to get started, but then the only difficult or tedious part of writing will be the subject matter you're writing about. The only barrier between your mind and beautiful output will be your slow fingers :)

LyX and Texmacs are a good compromise, however. You can write the code when you're comfortable doing so, but you can click stuff when you're learning.

I still maintain its easier to get your professor or colleagues to upgrade to Word 2007 than to convince them to learn LaTeX.

Weird. I haven't had a college professor who has to typeset mathematical equations who doesn't know LaTeX.

Perhaps he could have said "It's easier to get your students to upgrade to Word 2007 than to use LaTeX".

Which would be true. However, it's a much better idea to get them to use LaTeX.

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