3 LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to
4 writing based on the structure of your documents, not their
5 appearance. It is released under a Free Software / Open Source
8 LyX is for people that write and want their writing to look great,
9 right out of the box. No more endless tinkering with formatting
10 details, 'finger painting' font attributes or futzing around with
11 page boundaries. You just write. In the background, Prof. Knuth's
12 legendary TeX typesetting engine makes you look good.
14 On screen, LyX looks like any word processor; its printed output
15 -- or richly cross-referenced PDF, just as readily produced --
16 looks like nothing else. Gone are the days of industrially bland
17 .docs, all looking similarly not-quite-right, yet coming out
18 unpredictably different on different printer drivers. Gone are the
19 crashes 'eating' your dissertation the evening before going to
22 LyX is stable and fully featured. It is a multi-platform, fully
23 internationalized application running natively on Unix/Linux and
24 the Macintosh and modern Windows platforms.
26 What do I need to run LyX?
29 * a Unix-like system (including Windows with cygwin)
30 * Windows 2000 or newer
31 * Mac OS 10.4 or newer
33 A decent LaTeX2e installation (e.g. TeX Live for Linux, MikTeX for
36 Python 2.3 or later to convert old LyX files and for helper scripts.
37 Note 1: Python 2.3.4 or later is required for exporting LyX files
38 to a pre-unicode format, as previous versions are affected by a bug
39 about the normalization of unicode strings.
40 Note 2: Python 2.4.0 or later is required for the clean_dvi.py script,
41 which, however, is only used on Windows, where at least Python 2.6.0
42 is anyway recommended.
43 Note 3: Python 3.0 or later is not supported.
45 How does the LyX version scheme work?
47 LyX uses a contiguous numbering scheme for versions, where a
48 number "1.x.y" indicates a stable release '1.x', maintenance
49 release 'y'. In other words, LyX 1.5.0 was the first stable
50 release in the 1.5-series of LyX. At the time of writing, the
51 latest maintenance release in the 1.5-series was LyX 1.5.2
53 Please note that maintenance releases are designed primarily to
54 fix bugs, and that the file format will _never_ change due to a
57 In addition to the stable releases and maintenance releases, some
58 users may want to give a ''release candidate'' a try. This is a
59 release that should be stable enough for daily work, but yet may
60 be potentially unstable. If no major bugs are found, the release
61 candiate is soon released as the first stable release in a a new
62 series. To summarize, there are three possible types of file names
63 that are of interest to normal users:
65 lyx-1.5.0.tar.gz -- stable release, first in the 1.5-series
66 lyx-1.5.5.tar.gz -- fifth maintenance release of LyX 1.5
67 lyx-1.5.0rc1.tar.gz -- potentially unstable release candidate
69 Note that the goal is not parallel development as for the linux
70 kernel --the team is too small to afford that-- but rather to
71 include all the simple and safe bug fixes. This is so that the
72 maintenance burden on us is not too high, and so that system
73 administrators can install new releases without fear. Experience
74 shows that these releases will contain a few new features, and
75 that the bulk of the patches will be documentation updates.
77 If you get the source from Subversion, the version string will
80 1.5.1svn -- this is the stable branch on which maintenance
81 release 1.5.1 will eventually be tagged.
82 1.6.0svn -- this is the main branch on which stable
83 release 1.6.0 will eventually be tagged.
89 How do I upgrade from an earlier LyX version?
91 Read the file UPGRADING for info on this subject.
93 What do I need to compile LyX from the source distribution?
95 * A good C++ compiler. Development is being done mainly with
96 gcc/g++, but some others work also. As of LyX 1.6.0, you need at
99 * The Qt4 library, at least version 4.2.2. For all features
100 newer versions (e.g. Qt 4.6) are recommended.
102 Read the file "INSTALL" for more information on compiling.
104 Okay, I've installed LyX. What now?
106 Once you've installed it, and everything looks fine, go read
107 the "Introduction" item under the Help menu. You should follow
108 the instructions there, which tell you to read (or at least skim)
109 the Tutorial. After that, you should also read "Help>LaTeX
110 configuration" which provides info on your LaTeX configuration
111 as LyX sees it. You might be missing a package or two that you'd
114 User-level configuration is possible via the Tools>Preferences menu.
116 Does LyX have support for non-English speakers/writers/readers?
118 Yes. LyX supports writing in many languages, including
119 right-to-left languages like Arabic or Hebrew.
121 Menus and error messages have been translated to many languages.
122 For the status of the different translations, see
123 http://www.lyx.org/I18n
125 Keymaps can ease typing in many languages.
127 Internet resources of relevance to LyX
129 The LyX homepage contains valuable information about LyX and the
130 various LyX mailing lists, as well as links to mirrors and other
131 LyX homepages around the world:
134 The LyX Wiki is the place where users can share information on
135 setting up and using LyX.
138 The main LyX archive site:
139 ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/
141 The LyX Development page has information about the development
142 effort. LyX is under Subversion control, so you can get the very
143 latest sources from there at any time.
144 http://www.lyx.org/devel
145 ftp://ftp.devel.lyx.org/pub/lyx/
147 How do I submit a bug report?
149 If possible, read the Introduction found under the Help menu in LyX.
150 You'll find detailed info on submitting bug reports there.
152 If you can't do that, send details to the LyX Developers' mailing
153 list, or use the LyX bug tracker at http://www.lyx.org/trac/.
154 Don't forget to mention which version you are having problems with!
156 How can I participate in the development of LyX?
158 Any help with the development of LyX is greatly appreciated ---
159 after all, LyX wouldn't be what it is today without the help
160 of volunteers. We need your help!
162 If you want to work on LyX, you should contact the developer's
163 mailing list for discussion on how to do your stuff. LyX is being
164 cleaned up, and therefore it's important to follow some rules.
165 Read about those rules in development/Code_rules/.
167 If you don't know C++, there are many other ways to
168 contribute. Write documentation. Help to internationalize LyX
169 by translating documentation or menus/error messages, or by
170 writing a new keymap. Write a new textclass. Find bugs (but
171 please read the list of known bugs first). Contribute money.
172 Or just offer feature suggestions (but please read the online
175 Thank you for trying LyX. We appreciate your feedback in the mailing