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List:       lyx-users
Subject:    Re: [Figure embedding] An easy way to share lyx documents
From:       Richard Heck <rgheck () bobjweil ! com>
Date:       2009-04-13 18:29:16
Message-ID: 49E3847C.6060302 () bobjweil ! com
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Etienne lepercq wrote:
>
>
>
>         I _really_ think this is a must have: I know someone else that
>         is willing to work with LyX and propose it to her teacher, but
>         having to tar/untar ... will make it _very_ difficult to accept.
>         Of course, you are right about the problem of where to untar
>         temporary files (as with this approach, I think un-tared files
>         should be considered as temporary files from the user's point
>         of view) but currently LyX _does_ use temporary files when
>         working with an unsaved document !
>
>     That's precisely what my old implementation did: untar to the
>     temporary directory.
>
>         I think that preserving the same temporary path is not
>         decreasing the quality of LyX, and adds a good feature (for
>         some people, a must have, when compared to the workflow some
>         have when working with WYSIWYG applications like OOo or MS-Word).
>
>     Yes, this model is similar to OOo, etc. Images and the like get
>     "embedded" within the document and lose touch with where they came
>     from. But it's a familiar model.
>
>
> Yes, that's a major drawback ! But the .zlyx could be used as an 
> "export" file format to share with others, then one could just merge 
> back the .lyx embedded into the .zlyx : I see this as a way one can 
> use this feature, but some may want to use it otherwise (as everyone 
> does when using OOo for example, reinsert the figure)
>
This is where things get messy. If you just want an export format, then 
that actually exists already, kind of. There's a script, lyxpak.py, in 
the development tree that will "pack" a LyX file and all its 
dependencies, wherever they may be, into a tar, I think. Then it can be 
shipped off, unpacked, etc. The difficulty is then in "updating". 
Obviously, you can unpack the tar yourself and do with it as you will. 
But, for security reasons, you do not really want LyX to be able 
automatically to unpack and write to arbitrary locations in your 
filesystem.

Richard

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