Portable LyX

[Drazick]

Hello.
Is there a way to use LyX in Portable Mode without installing MiKTeX?

I want to be able to edit TeX files and produce PDF without installing programs
(Use only portable programs).

Thanks.

[Liviu Andronic]

Post by Drazick
Hello.
Is there a way to use LyX in Portable Mode without installing MiKTeX?
I want to be able to edit TeX files and produce PDF without installing programs
(Use only portable programs).

You cannot produce PDF from TeX files without a LaTeX distribution
such as MiKTeX. Otherwise, LyX is not exactly a TeX editor.

Regards
Liviu

Post by Drazick
Thanks.

[Ganesh Sundaram]

Post by Liviu Andronic

Post by Drazick
Hello.
Is there a way to use LyX in Portable Mode without installing MiKTeX?
I want to be able to edit TeX files and produce PDF without installing programs
(Use only portable programs).

You cannot produce PDF from TeX files without a LaTeX distribution
such as MiKTeX. Otherwise, LyX is not exactly a TeX editor.
Regards
Liviu

Post by Drazick
Thanks.

One however "install" (i.e., download and uncompress) MiKTeX portable
version, and point to the MiKTeX bin directory while installing LyX.

If all the Lyx settings files are stored in the Lyx installation
directory itself, then the entire Lyx installation folder can be copied
and used as Lyx portable version so long the computer to which it is
copied to has MiKTeX portable. If the directories are different, one
much change the path variable in the Lyx paths and, if needed,
reconfigure Lyx.

The question now is that whether Lyx stores all the settings files in
the installation directory itself, and not use registry (for windows,
etc). Perhaps one of the developers could have answer to this more
specific question.

Regards
Ganesh

[Diego Queiroz]

The question now is that whether Lyx stores all the settings files in the
installation directory itself, and not use registry (for windows, etc).
Perhaps one of the developers could have answer to this more specific
question.

LyX uses the user directory by default and doesn't use the Windows register.
AFAIK the directory is defined in the compilation process and there's no way
to achieve this without changing the code.

But since there is a portable version MiKTeX, it would be a good to provide
a portable version of LyX.

Vincent,
Goals for 2.1? :-)

---
Diego Queiroz

[Drazick]

The perfect idea would be a portable LyX which includes any library needed
within it.

I think the guys over Portable Apps <http://portableapps.com/> will be
helpful.

The question now is that whether Lyx stores all the settings files in the

installation directory itself, and not use registry (for windows, etc).
Perhaps one of the developers could have answer to this more specific
question.

LyX uses the user directory by default and doesn't use the Windows register.
AFAIK the directory is defined in the compilation process and there's no
way to achieve this without changing the code.
But since there is a portable version MiKTeX, it would be a good to provide
a portable version of LyX.
Vincent,
Goals for 2.1? :-)
---
Diego Queiroz

[Ganesh Sundaram]

Post by Ganesh Sundaram
The question now is that whether Lyx stores all the settings files
in the installation directory itself, and not use registry (for
windows, etc). Perhaps one of the developers could have answer to
this more specific question.
LyX uses the user directory by default and doesn't use the Windows register.
AFAIK the directory is defined in the compilation process and there's
no way to achieve this without changing the code.

I am not able to fully understand the part
"the directory is defined in the compilation process and there's no way
to achieve this without changing the code".

I have following facts:

1. During installation, in Windows OS, I am able to change the directory
of installation during installation.

2. I recently changed my computer, but attached the old hard disk to the
current one. I ran the Lyx that I had been installed in that hard disk.
It runs perfectly well. But with one difference. It opened all the files
that was open when I closed the application that is currently installed
in the new computer. So some common data specific to the user is being
accessed from some common area specific to the user for Lyx1.6. This
user profile data set location is different for Lyx 2.0 and Lyx 1.6.

So this means that whatever changes that was required in this regard
when moving from Lyx 1.6 to Lyx 2.0 may be reimplemented so that all the
settings files are stored in the LyX installation folder itself for a
portable version.

Just as in the software called "IrfanView" image viewer, we could
provide an option of storing the common data in a user profile directory
or in the installation directory itself. In the latter case,
installation directory becomes self contained and portable. This can be
handy if the computer is used by only one person.

Thanks.
Regards
Ganesh

[Jean-Marc Lasgouttes]

Post by Ganesh Sundaram

Post by Diego Queiroz
LyX uses the user directory by default and doesn't use the Windows register.
AFAIK the directory is defined in the compilation process and there's
no way to achieve this without changing the code.

I am not able to fully understand the part
"the directory is defined in the compilation process and there's no way
to achieve this without changing the code".

LyX is able to find its system files relative to where the binary is.
User files are in a fixed place, though, but we query windows to know
where is user setting should be, so I guess there are some possible tricks.

JMarc

[Diego Queiroz]

Post by Ganesh Sundaram
I am not able to fully understand the part
"the directory is defined in the compilation process and there's no way to
achieve this without changing the code".

Open LyX and select Help > About.
There you can see what directory LyX is using to store user files.

On Windows, this folder is defined based on the %APPDATA% environment
variable.
Currently, there's no way to change this without changing the code.

This is what I meant.


Cheers,
---
Diego Queiroz

[Wolfgang Keller]

Post by Drazick
Is there a way to use LyX in Portable Mode without installing MiKTeX?

Yes [1].

Post by Drazick
I want to be able to edit TeX files

While LyX uses (La)TeX to produce PDF, it does not use "native" (La)TeX
internally. And importing (La)TeX into LyX is not exactly seamless.

Sincerely,

Wolfgang

[1] I'm using LyX 2.0 with TeXLive 2010 and SumatraPDF, all portable.

[Matthias Schmidt]

I gave this request to the PortableApps Forum "Request Apps"
yesterday (http://portableapps.com/node/27981) :

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?

[Trevor Jenkins]

Post by Matthias Schmidt
I gave this request to the PortableApps Forum "Request Apps"

There was a version of LyX at PortableApps.com but it was difficult to get
to work. I never succeeded in running it. It has also been deprecated for
lack of updates.

Post by Matthias Schmidt
I myself never made a portable app before. Is someone here who agrees to
create a portable LyX?

I'm not volunteering to undertake this port. I don't have access to a
Windows PC at all except at client sites where having LyX as a portable app
would be helpful.

Regards, Trevor.

<>< Re: deemed!

[Matthias Schmidt]

Some days before I gave a request for a portable Lyx to the
request-forum of portableapps.com. Today came an answer: there is
someone, who would build a portable lyx!

Have a look at http://portableapps.com/node/27981. He closes his
considerations with: "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."

As I don't understand anything about programming, perhaps someone else
of you would like to contact him?

[Matthias Schmidt]

Oh Wunder und Freude für die Anhänger des portablen LyX:

Das totgeglaubte LyTeX-Projekt lebt noch: es gibt seit 3 Tagen
eine aktuelle Version LyTeX auf
http://code.google.com/p/lytex/downloads/detail?name=LyTeX-2.0a-bin.exe
herunterzuladen!

Im Paket stecken
- Lyx 2.0.1
- MiKTeX 2.9

Aber Achtung: das Entpacken hat bei mir eine gute halbe Stunde
gedauert. Die Downloaddatei ist 162 MB groß. Auf dem USB-Stick ist das
ganze Paket dann 760 MB groß.

MiKTeX scheint aktuell und ok zu sein. Die MiKTeX-Updatefunktion
scheint aber - wie bei der vorherigen Version - nicht zu funktionieren
("The update helper could not be found.").

[Phil]

 
I think this is precisely what I've been wishing for.   

thank you very much..