YDL in Mac OS X Hints today

[Tim Seufert]

On Feb 27, 2004, at 8:58 PM, Clinton MacDonald wrote:

> Mr. Seufert:
>
> Thanks for your response:
>
> Tim Seufert <tas AT mindspring DOT com> wrote:
>> On Feb 27, 2004, at 7:10 PM, Clinton MacDonald
>> wrote:
>>> I need to be able to type long diatribes
>>> into poorly designed forms,
>>
>> Not sure about support of forms, but have you
>> ever tried LyX? It's generally very cool for
>> writing technical documents.
>
> I have heard of LyX (and the somehow related TEX and
> LaTEX). I am attracted by the openness and
> cross-platformness (to coin a word) of its ASCII-based
> format, while being simultaneously repulsed by the
> thought of having to learn a page layout language.

LyX is related in that it's a frontend for TeX / LaTeX.  It eliminates 
the need to learn the page layout language, at the cost of some 
flexibility.  Personally I don't know what I'm missing, so as far as 
I'm concerned, ignorance is bliss.  :)

> What are your experiences with LyX? Is there a Mac OS
> X incarnation you can recommend that I can play with
> until I fix my YDL Wallstreet PowerBook? Is there a
> tutorial that an old guy can comprehend?

My experience is that it makes writing technical documentation with 
diagrams, tables, etc. very easy, removing most of the formatting labor 
associated with using a word processor like MS Word.

There is indeed a MacOS X incarnation, in fact there are multiple ways 
to get it.  One way would just be to use fink to install it, and use it 
through X11.  Another is the Aqua port which essentially makes it a 
native app, though it needs some work in user interface polishing.  
(Probably related to the fact that it's really the Qt port of LyX being 
used with Qt-Aqua, which is not totally mature yet.)  Stefan Bruda 
already posted a link to the Aqua port but I'll do so again just in 
case:

http://www.18james.com/lyx_on_aqua.html

As for tutorials, fortunately it comes with some very nice stuff built 
in.  Just run LyX and one of the menus will have tutorials, 
documentation, etc.