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 10.2 or newer
33 A decent LaTeX2e installation (e.g. teTeX for unix) not older
35 Python 2.3 or later to convert old LyX files and for helper scripts
37 How does the LyX version scheme work?
39 LyX uses a contiguous numbering scheme for versions, where a
40 number "1.x.y" indicates a stable release '1.x', fix level 'y'.
41 Prereleases are denoted with the suffix "pre" and there are
42 therefore three possible types of file names:
44 lyx-1.5.0.tar.gz -- stable release
45 lyx-1.5.5.tar.gz -- fifth maintenance release of LyX 1.5
46 lyx-1.5.0pre1.tar.gz -- potentially unstable test release
48 The maintenance releases are designed primarily to fix bugs,
49 and the file format will _never_ change due to a maintenance
52 The goal here is not to have parallel development as for the
53 linux kernel (the team is too small to afford that), but rather
54 to include all the simple (so that the maintenance burden on us
55 is not too high) and safe (so that system administrators can
56 install them without fear) bug fixes. Experience shows that
57 these releases will contain a few new features, and that the
58 bulk of the patches will be documentation updates.
60 If you get the source from Subversion, the version string will
63 1.5.1svn -- this is the stable branch on which maintenance
64 release 1.5.1 will eventually be tagged.
65 1.6.0svn -- this is the main branch on which stable
66 release 1.6.0 will eventually be tagged.
72 How do I upgrade from an earlier LyX version?
74 Read the file UPGRADING for info on this subject.
76 What do I need to compile LyX from the source distribution?
78 * A good C++ compiler. Development is being done mainly with
79 gcc/g++, but some others work also. As of LyX 1.5.0, you need at
82 * The Qt4 library, version 4.1.1 or newer.
84 Read the file "INSTALL" for more information on compiling.
86 Okay, I've installed LyX. What now?
88 Once you've installed it, and everything looks fine, go read
89 the "Introduction" item under the Help menu. You should follow
90 the instructions there, which tell you to read (or at least skim)
91 the Tutorial. After that, you should also read "Help>LaTeX
92 configuration" which provides info on your LaTeX configuration
93 as LyX sees it. You might be missing a package or two that you'd
96 User-level configuration is possible via the Tools>Preferences menu.
98 Does LyX have support for non-English speakers/writers/readers?
100 Yes. LyX supports writing in many languages, including
101 right-to-left languages like Arabic or Hebrew. There is a port
102 of LyX named CJK-LyX which adds support for Chinese, Korean
103 and Japanese (http://cellular.phys.pusan.ac.kr/cjk.html)
104 [This support is being merged in lyx-1.5]
106 Menus and error messages have been translated to 17 languages.
107 For the status of the different translations, see
108 http://www.lyx.org/devel/i18n.php
110 Keymaps can ease typing in many languages.
112 Internet resources of relevance to LyX
114 The LyX homepage contains valuable information about LyX and the
115 various LyX mailing lists, as well as links to mirrors and other
116 LyX homepages around the world:
119 The LyX Wiki is the place where users can share information on
120 setting up and using LyX.
123 The main LyX archive site:
124 ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/
126 The LyX Development page has information about the development
127 effort. LyX is under Subversion control, so you can get the very
128 latest sources from there at any time.
129 http://www.lyx.org/devel
130 ftp://ftp.devel.lyx.org/pub/lyx/
132 How do I submit a bug report?
134 If possible, read the Introduction found under the Help menu in LyX.
135 You'll find detailed info on submitting bug reports there.
137 If you can't do that, send details to the LyX Developers' mailing
138 list, or use the LyX bug tracker at http://bugzilla.lyx.org/.
139 Don't forget to mention which version you are having problems with!
141 How can I participate in the development of LyX?
143 Any help with the development of LyX is greatly appreciated ---
144 after all, LyX wouldn't be what it is today without the help
145 of volunteers. We need your help!
147 If you want to work on LyX, you should contact the developer's
148 mailing list for discussion on how to do your stuff. LyX is being
149 cleaned up, and therefore it's important to follow some rules.
150 Read about those rules in development/Code_rules/.
152 If you don't know C++, there are many other ways to
153 contribute. Write documentation. Help to internationalize LyX
154 by translating documentation or menus/error messages, or by
155 writing a new keymap. Write a new textclass. Find bugs (but
156 please read the list of known bugs first). Contribute money.
157 Or just offer feature suggestions (but please read the online
160 Thank you for trying LyX. We appreciate your feedback in the mailing