Stefan_K

My suggestion: Make the LyX program capable of using online LaTeX compilers. (I posted this already to http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/108283/213).

This means having an API and usable connections to existing online services. I'm sure the vendors of such services would support it. So a user could simply install LyX, and benefit from the newest TeX version without installing it - slim but capable and up-to-date installations would be possible.

File storage services such as dropbox could be connected, the storage of an online compiling service used, or files could simply be uploaded each time when being compiled - LaTeX files are small, and compressed uploads or syncs would be quick.

Online cloud based editors are a great step forward. They bring LaTeX to tablets and smartphones, and to people who now don't need to overcome the barrier of a LaTeX installation, and maintaining it.

With an online editor, I can send my mom a web link and a LaTeX document which she can easily compile on her iPad! She even can do text corrections for me, even if she doesn't know those preamble things.

I asked this question. My grandpas both don't live any more, and when my grandma asked I noticed that I did not have the right words. She did never use computers. My mum and my dad did. And my girlfriend uses it.

So I still hope to find the right words to explain why such _programming_ writing is remakably good, while simply typing formatted text with a computer is something different.

A long explanation would be boring to her I guess. So I still hope for some enligthening words. Perhaps here?