Hello,
first please excuse my poor english.
LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM) and not simply their appearance (WYSIWYG): http://www.lyx.org.
Some years befor there has been topics about a portable LyX in PortableApps. But they didn't induce a portable Lyx.
On http://code.google.com/p/lytex/ there has been a portable Lyx für a while. It worked well, but it is abandoned now.
LyX had a a great leap forward now with the version 2.0, that was published this month.
I suggest to create a portable Lyx:
Lyx needs for running some other programs (see http://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/LyXWinInstaller). I myself never made a portable app before. Is someone here who agrees to create a portable LyX?
Thanks
Matthias,
Hannover/Germany
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I would be extremly grateful if someone could make such a portable package (with MiKteX as package manager?) I've been checking out LaTeX resp. LyX for just a couple of days now (the mentioned older package), and I am very impressed...
The old (LyX provided) 1.* installers required manually installing a variety of dependencies including imagemagick/graphicmagick, python, ghostscript and some LaTeX distro (An old/broken version of LyX Portable is here). Version 2.0 simplifies this, as they bundle the required parts of imagemagick, python and ghostscript. An external LaTeX distro is the only dependency. 2.0 is much better than 1.*, so I'm only focusing on 2.0.
If needed, we can hack out the ghostscript, and use the PortableApps version, but I'd rather not deal with that overhead - let's just use the bundled ghostscript. We could also use Portable Python, but again, I think that's more effort than it's worth - plus we'll have to deal with making sure to have the right version of Python. Blender bundles python, so I say we let LyX do the same.
As far as the LaTeX distro, I think we can use MiKTeX Portable. In fact, LyX uses MiKTeX by default on windows (see this page). I've started by unpacking it into X:/PortableApps/CommonFiles/MiKTeX. (Perhaps someone would also like to make a PortableApps installer for this?) Currently, their main executable 'miktex-portable.cmd' runs 'miktex\bin\miktex-taskbar-icon.exe'. I wonder if we'll need to run that before running LyX, and then close it when LyX closes. Also, it seems that MiKTeX does not come with all of the LaTeX packages that LyX needs, so the first launch can take a while to download all of them.
On initial install, LyX doesn't put much in the registry (HKCU\Software\LyX20 or HKLM\Software\LyX20 - LyX would probably work without either, but I haven't tested that) with a significant exception: There are a ton of entries for the Metafile to EPS Converter installed with LyX. Apparently, it creates a windows printer through which you can pipe WMF and EMF files to get EPS images. We might be able to just ignore those entries - You wouldn't be able to install a "printer" in an internet cafe anyway. We'll need to make sure that LyX image handling doesn't break without that.
It seems LyX stores some preferences in HKCU\Software\LyX\LyX2.0. It also has a preferences folder in C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\LyX or C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\LyX (depending on which version of windows). Also, the Launcher needs to modify X:\PortableApps\LyXPortable\App\LyX\Resources\lyxrc.dist to replace the drive letter on the line:
\path_prefix "$LyXDir\bin;$LyXDir\python;$LyXDir\imagemagick;$LyXDir\ghostscript;X:\PortableApps\CommonFiles\MiKTeX\miktex\bin"
(Aside: This is probably where you'd make changes so that LyX uses a PortableApps version of GhostScript, Python, or ImageMagick).
I've started putting together the LyX Launcher, but I thought I'd post my research, to see if anyone's willing to collaborate on this.
See Also:
https://portableapps.com/node/9772
https://portableapps.com/node/9880
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.editors.lyx.general/69685
http://www.latex-community.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=9412
Once complete, this page needs to be updated with instructions on how to use the Portable Apps version of LyX. We'll also need a nice install splash that uses the LyX logo - I wonder if there are image templates somewhere for that?
someone is working on this! I would be willing to do some testing, although I am quite new to LyX.
Thank you for your efforts!
Hi,
I've recently published Portable Lyx 2.0 on http://portable-lyx.impossible-exil.info. You may want to give it a try.
Best regards,
BrokenClock
I've downloaded your version from 2012-01-12.
When started, it tells me:
Sie haben ein nicht vorhandenes LyX-Benutzerverzeichnis angegeben, C:/Dokumente. Es wird benötigt, um Ihre persönliche Konfiguration abzulegen.
[i. e. You have chosen a non existing LyX User Folder... It is necessary to store your personal configuration]
Then it says:
Das Verzeichnis im gegebenen Pfad [...] existiert nicht.
[The folder in the given path [...] doesn't exist]
Das Verzeichnis im gegebenen Pfad [.../local.lyx] existiert nicht.
[The folder in the given path [.../local.lyx] doesn't exist]
Afterwards it does seem to work properly.
I would really like to see a working, official portable LyX in the "official" .paf format (saving the configuration in the appropriate folder).
Maybe someone here in the forum could help to make it paf-compilant? That would be very great as LyX is a really great piece of software and would help many people getting started with LaTeX!
I've downloaded the same version. If you rename the folder "Portable Lyx 2" to "PortableLyx2" (without blanks), these errors will completely disappear.
Please have this, to round out the suite.
Cheers
A LyXPortable.paf would really be appreciated!!!
If some one could offer a fully functioning Portable Bundle of LyX it would be amazing.
Namely both the editor and the MiKTeX packages.