This is what part of a LaTeX file looks like:
====================================================================
\begin{center}
Introduction to \LaTeX \\ % \\ = new line
February 26, 2002
\end{center}
\section{Introduction}
\TeX\ looks more difficult than it is. It is
almost as easy as $\pi$. See how easy it is to make special
symbols such as $\alpha$,
$\beta$, $\gamma$,
$\delta$, $\sin x$, $\hbar$, $\lambda$, $\ldots$ We also can make
subscripts
$A_{x}$, $A_{xy}$ and superscripts, $e^x$, $e^{x^2}$, and
$e^{a^b}$. We will use \LaTeX, which is based on \TeX\ and has
many higher-level commands (macros) for formatting, making
tables, etc. More information can be found in Ref.~\cite{latex}.
====================================================================
Now you know why it never caught on with the general public! However, LaTeX/TeX is powerful, full-featured, stable and produces very good output, especially for typesetting, so it continues to be used in many specialized fields. Fortunately, along comes LyX, so the average user can use LaTeX/Tex painlessly. Lucky you. It has even been ported to OS/2, and is absolutely free and open-source.
First up, you need a working X-Window server. I'm not going to go into details about that here, that's for another article. Now, if are using something other than XFree86/2, then you need to install the XFree86 Libraries, because LyX assumes that you are running XFree86/2 (and so do nearly all ported X applications). The easiest way is a nice WarpIn Package of XFree86 Libraries (ftp://ftp.uni-duesseldorf.de/pub/os2/beta/Xlib-3-3-6.wpi). (You can refer to a previous OS/2 e-Zine article about getting that set up). Once you've done that, you can get started on installing LyX itself. It's pretty easy:
When you first start up, it may give you an error message about the /tmp directory, if one doesn't already exist in your drive. Don't worry, it will work just fine. On the first startup, just go to "Edit->Preferences" and you can change the temporary directory path.
Here's where you'll meet one of LyX's little user interface quirks. It isn't charming, it's horribly bad practice.
It's a multi-tab dialog in multiple rows. The top row are the main sections. The bottom row, even if it does look the same as the top, is not a continuation of the sections! These are the subsections of the main sections shown in the top row. UGH! They may produce elegant, stable code, but they've got a thing or two to learn about user interface design! Anyways, at least it works. With a bit of poking around, you can find what you need to change.
You may have noticed the language tab in the screenshot above. Yes, since LyX is a worldwide effort, there is support for many languages. There is even available Chinese-Japanese-Korean (CJK) support, but that hasn't been built into the main branch for OS/2 yet. As long as you've installed the fonts for your X-server, you can use whatever language you want, presumably.
(LyX_main.jpg)
[Click image to view full size.]
Nothing really stands out, but the interface looks pretty familiar, and there is even fly-over bubble help on the buttons. Footnotes, margin notes, figures, tables, etc. There are a few differences in operation, mainly because the "philosophy" of LaTeX is different from that of a normal word processor. The idea is that you should be writing, not playing around with positioning tables and fancy fonts and all those other things you can do nowadays. It would help to go through the tutorial first.
So what's missing? You may have noticed it already. There is no font/font size selection, there's no buttons for bold, underline or italic. What happened? This is by design. The originators of LaTeX/TeX figured that people should stop mucking around with pretty fonts and just get on with the job of writing. So, all you do is specify what kind of text it is (i.e. section header, plain text, sub-chapter, footnote, etc.) and everything is taken care of for you. If you're the sort that likes to customize, yes, the fonts and styles can be altered (and is designed to be customizable, it isn't hacking), but you'll have to learn a bit about LaTeX/Tex or read the LyX manual, which I will not go into here.
With LyX, everything is in the styles. You want a bulleted list? There is no "bullet" button, just highlight the text, and select the style to be "List". How about a numbered list? Same thing, highlight the text, then select the style to be "Enumerate". There's something to be said for this approach. Once you realize there is no playing around, you just get to your writing. And you know that all your lists will look the same, all the time, everytime. No accidental formatting possible here. Same thing for all title and section headers. If you want it to be such, you have to change the style, not the font. This ensures that all your titles are consistent in appearance, and that they are automatically numbered and you can be sure they won't be left out of the Table of Contents.
Some of you may be happy to hear this: LyX can handle start and end quotes "properly". (i.e. 66's and 99's, unlike WordPro.) The trick here is to select the style "Quote". LyX will then automatically handle start and end quotes differently.
Pictures may be a bit of a weak point with LyX (or LaTeX/TeX.) Not that it is bad at handling graphics, but the only issue here is that the LaTeX engine can only handle Encapsulated Postcript (.EPS) or Postscript (.PS) files. So graphs or figures will have to be converted. Now, that in itself wouldn't be so bad, but it is unable to render the EPS or PS files on screen for you, so you have to either print it out, or ask it to render a DVI or PDF file to see how it turned out. To be fair though, if you've got an EPS file embedded in the document, you can be pretty much certain that it will turn out properly. You just have to worry about placing it. Also there is no built in function in LyX to draw even simple figures. Any graphics will have to be done with an external application.
The equation editor is reasonably complete and decently useable (but not as good as WordPro's, in my opinion). You can be pretty certain it will be complete, as it was originally catered towards scientists and engineers! I suppose if you prefer LyX for this, you can generate a LaTeX equation, which you can then import into WordPro. One advantage of this editor is that if you're familiar with the LaTeX "codes" for the various symbols and formatting for equation entry, you can type in long equations very quickly, instead of searching through various menus and boxes for all the symbols and formats you need. For example, typing the "_" character automatically starts a subscript. In WordPro, I'd have to wiggle my mouse up to the top menu bar and click on the subscript button.
If you aren't familiar with it yet, there is a nice little box of math functions and symbols for you. In another little quirk though, if you want superscripts or subscripts, it isn't in the "Math Panel", you have to go to "Insert->Special Character" and pick superscript or subscript.
Tables, figures and probably equations can have auto-numbering. When you go to make a list of them, everything is automatically handled. No need to manually number each item (well, the same feature is available on most word processors too.) Actually, to be honest, it doesn't seem obvious to me how to auto-number the equations, but as everyone does it, the function must be there somewhere! (Yes, and I did see it in the manual somewhere, I just haven't got around to reading it yet.)
Since you've so nicely defined the different sections, might as well make use of it. The navigation feature is present in any modern word processor, but LyX has made it particularly accessible without wasting valuable screen space. For example, Word takes up a huge area of your screen with a big navigation window pane on the left side if you want to use this feature.
Just go to Navigate in the menu bar and you can select the section to jump to. In a simple letter, probably not of much use, but if you're re-writing "War & Peace", this is invaluable. Also available is the ability to jump to "Notes" within your document. These obviously don't print out, but are little reminders for you. (It could be something like "Be sure to update the graph here!").
If you poke around a bit in the Preferences, you'll find some settings for format coverters. This doesn't really count, as it just calls up an external viewer for formats it doesn't know how to deal with.
Actually, I highly recommend reading the Tutorial before you embark on any adventure. While LyX looks like a normal word processor, there are differences which can make your life difficult if you don't know why or how. I would compare this to a user moving from Windows to OS/2. It might be a fight at the start, but when you realize why something is done, you understand that different isn't always bad. Often it's better!
LyX is a front end for LaTeX engine. It has just about everything one might need in a word processor. Honestly, many people have used this to write large textbooks with many figures, tables, and equations. It's likely to be far beyond what most people require. Although the time required to learn how to use Lyx/LaTeX style of document processing effectively may be a bit longer, you may find it worth your while. You can't beat free, so give it a shot.
This was not intended to be a comprehensive review of LyX, but just to highlight a few things and give you a taste of what it's like.
I'm sure I've missed many things, but you can always explore them yourself.
This article is courtesy of www.os2ezine.com. You can view it online at http://www.os2ezine.com/20021116/page_4.html.