Weird compile result -- bug?

[Richard Kimberly Heck]

On 10/16/21 12:07, Paul A. Rubin wrote:
> On 10/16/21 11:41 AM, Jürgen Spitzmüller wrote:
>> Am Samstag, dem 16.10.2021 um 11:28 -0400 schrieb Paul A. Rubin:
>>> On Ubuntu and Mint with TeXLive, biblatex comes in one of the TeXLive
>>> packages (texlive-latex-recommended?) but biber requires installation
>>> of a separate package ("biber") that does not contain TeXLive in its
>>> name. So I suspect it is not uncommon to install biblatex (via
>>> TeXLive) and not have biber. Since biblatex still works, they may be
>>> fine ... until someone sends them a LyX file that selects biber. LyX
>>> changes that to "default" and the adventure begins.
>> This is a very bad package choice. IMHO biblatex package should require
>> biber. Biblatex only works to a very limited degree with bibtex8, many
>> styles and advanced features require biber.
>>
>> You should file a bug report against them.
>>
>>> Actually, though, the bigger concern for me is that (before I
>>> installed biber and reconfigured) arbitrary edits to the preamble in
>>> such a file changed the biblatex load command that LyX put in the
>>> .tex
>>> file. Switching the processor from biber to default (or bibtex) when
>>> LyX cannot find biber seems reasonable to me, but doing it somewhat
>>> randomly is a bit too idiosyncratic for me. As I originally wrote,
>>> just
>>> adding a space at the end of the preamble was enough to change LyX's
>>> behavior on my system.
>> As I tried to explain this is not due to preamble edits per se, but due
>> to doing any change in document preferences. As biber is not available,
>> it cannot be (re-)selected in settings. All we could do about that is
>> issue a warning.

I think this would be an adequate solution.

Riki