LyX ⇒ Are the Lyx developers ever going to get the basics right?

[rschwinn]

I have heard others ask for help with this, but after several months and multiple installs/reconfigures on a variety of computers the lyx templates are still handled as sloppily as ever.

I am a person who began using Lyx directly. I like the concept. I like the interface.

The problem is that I'm pretty sure I don't see the big picture. How can it be the developers of the program don't care that IT DOESN'T WORK out of the box? Is there some important aspect of typesetting that makes this okay to experts? It reminds me of the story about some Microsoft programmers who refused to believe that users needed help files. Their denials became such a problem that they had to show video tapes of consumer tests to the programmers in order for them to accept that someone could actually need help.

When I open a program for the first time and the majority of ITS OWN templates fail due to missing files/styles/... it completely destroys the credibility of the software.

What's even worse is that the only solution offered is to click reconfigure (which changes nothing about the problem).

At first I hoped that it was simply a temporary mix up. Yet given that after several releases, things still don't work correctly, I wonder if the problem is me. So once again I ask, what is it that I don't understand that makes this massive blunder on the part of the LYX developers, okay?

[josephwright]

Not being a regular Lyx user, I thought I'd have a quick look at this. I've donwloaded Lyx on both my Mac and Windows PC, installed it and looked at a few templates. For me, the templates I tried seem to work, with the only wrinkle being that I had to tell Lyx where to find MiKTeX 2.8. Lyx also did some checks on installation, and so MiKTeX auto-installed the packages it needed for Lyx that were not installed. All seemed quite smooth. So I wonder if you can give us a bit more information: your operating system, TeX system installed and which templates we're talking about.

[rschwinn]

I have installed Lyx on Windows XP, Vista, and Win7. Always with the result that the majority of the templates do not work. When I open them, they give me an error and then they do not allow me to create DVIs or PDFs.

And what does it mean when you say that you had to tell it where to look for MiKteX 2.8?

If you would like to replicate this do the following:
(1) start with any Windows PC (XP or greater OS) without any LaTeX software.
(2) install Lyx from the SEP 04 2009 installer.
(3) open several of the templates
(4) get error
(5) click on reconfigure
(6) wait a long time
(7) open the templates again to see that they fail to open.

[monamipierrot]

(2) install Lyx from the SEP 04 2009 installer.

And LaTeX? What about LaTeX? Maybe you should download the installer-BUNDLE, which contains ALMOST everything you need to run LyX.
Otherwise you have to install LaTeX separately. Did you install it?

Anyway, you're right that some of the templates actually can't be previewed, but, in my case, for almost all of them I even don't know what are they for... and if I knew, I sure would be able to make them work in a minute.
Did you need them for you or where you complaining for other potential users?

Regards,

Piero

[Stubi]

I installed version 1.6.4. (installer-bundle) on my WinXP 32-bit, because I am about to begin my diploma thesis. (tried 1.6.x and 1.5.0. as well, installing miktex 2.7 and 2.8 seperately...).
I wanted to see the potential of the software, so I checked out some templates from the programme itself and some from the web. But none of them could be opened. Even the help documents of lyx can't be compiled and exported by lyx.
I assume that this is a problem of the windows distribution only...

[rschwinn]

(2) install Lyx from the SEP 04 2009 installer.

And LaTeX? What about LaTeX? Maybe you should download the installer-BUNDLE, which contains ALMOST everything you need to run LyX.
Otherwise you have to install LaTeX separately. Did you install it?

Of course I (now we) installed the "Installer bundle". If we're smart enough to need to write documents for publication, we can handle simple things like this.

(1) Why don't the people releasing LYX simply remove the templates that they cannot support from future installations?

(2) Does anyone have any idea what the cryptic error messages mean (when opening the broken templates)? It's such a disappointment that a piece of software with such potential could be so poorly implemented.

(3) How does one set up there own formatting conventions in LYx?

(4) Is there only one person working on LYX?

[Ragnar2009]

I'm also having trouble with LyX. The majority of the packages cannot be used and I get error messages and cannot create pdf or dvi. When I read on the internet about different packages that I would like to use, I have no idea how to install them. There is no instructions on how to do this that is helpful. I have Miktex 2.8 and latest LyX installed on Windows 7.

Besides this, I think LyX is quite nice, but it's so frustrating to have to sit for hours searching for information that is nowhere to be found.

[magneez]

For me the basic issue is not being able to add packages, styles, modules, whatever (for document classes, and I'm not talking about the stuff available in MikTex) and fonts (still have no idea how to do that) without going through a painful (and non-documented) process of placing files in esoteric locations, running scripts, etc. You would expect a simple import (not for a "local layout", which is useless).

Also there is a host of bugs regarding rendering to PS/DVI/PDF (ugly math fonts are used arbitrarily, sometimes raster instead of vector output is produced, etc.), and in-program display of math formulae (fonts arbitrarily appear as \texcode instead of displaying even when Lyx is supposed to display them). There are workarounds for (at least some) of these issues, but they are painful and poorly documented (if at all).

[lyxtex]

I'm in the same boat. Somehow always something is not working and I've literally already spent days and weeks troubleshooting and trying to solve this and that. The community is very helpful but still it's very time consuming. Thinking about switching back to Word now. Yes I know, type citations and such manually. But: at least the citation style would be the way I want it to be and I wouldnt have to spend hours trying to correct the code just to find out that it's finally working, hurray, but *arrgh* now something else stopped working.
I thought LyX would be time consuming to start with but once accustomed to it, it will be a lot more stable than Word. Now, several month later, I'm still stumbling from one problem to the next. At least for me layouting in Word would have been a lot easier, user friendly, and faster than in LyX.

[lalop]

If you're that frustrated by lyx (I haven't used it ``enough'' to really know about its quirks) you should seriously consider switching to full-on latex. There, if something doesn't work, it's at least your fault, and you can look at the error messages and go fix it.

Lyx is kind of like a ``halfway house'' that hides the latex process for the user's convenience. But sometimes, hiding the process can be bad, I guess.

I recommend TexMakerX for the front-end processor.

When I read on the internet about different packages that I would like to use, I have no idea how to install them. There is no instructions on how to do this that is helpful. I have Miktex 2.8 and latest LyX installed on Windows 7.

This is sort of overdue, but adding packages has nothing to do with lyx and everything to do with miktex. Under start, go Miktex --> Maintenance (admin) --> Package manager. Afterwards, don't forget to include the code \usepackage{packagename} in the preamble.