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. 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.
44 How does the LyX version scheme work?
46 LyX uses a contiguous numbering scheme for versions, where a
47 number "1.x.y" indicates a stable release '1.x', maintenance
48 release 'y'. In other words, LyX 1.5.0 was the first stable
49 release in the 1.5-series of LyX. At the time of writing, the
50 latest maintenance release in the 1.5-series was LyX 1.5.2
52 Please note that maintenance releases are designed primarily to
53 fix bugs, and that the file format will _never_ change due to a
56 In addition to the stable releases and maintenance releases, some
57 users may want to give a ''release candidate'' a try. This is a
58 release that should be stable enough for daily work, but yet may
59 be potentially unstable. If no major bugs are found, the release
60 candiate is soon released as the first stable release in a a new
61 series. To summarize, there are three possible types of file names
62 that are of interest to normal users:
64 lyx-1.5.0.tar.gz -- stable release, first in the 1.5-series
65 lyx-1.5.5.tar.gz -- fifth maintenance release of LyX 1.5
66 lyx-1.5.0rc1.tar.gz -- potentially unstable release candidate
68 Note that the goal is not parallel development as for the linux
69 kernel --the team is too small to afford that-- but rather to
70 include all the simple and safe bug fixes. This is so that the
71 maintenance burden on us is not too high, and so that system
72 administrators can install new releases without fear. Experience
73 shows that these releases will contain a few new features, and
74 that the bulk of the patches will be documentation updates.
76 If you get the source from Subversion, the version string will
79 1.5.1svn -- this is the stable branch on which maintenance
80 release 1.5.1 will eventually be tagged.
81 1.6.0svn -- this is the main branch on which stable
82 release 1.6.0 will eventually be tagged.
88 How do I upgrade from an earlier LyX version?
90 Read the file UPGRADING for info on this subject.
92 What do I need to compile LyX from the source distribution?
94 * A good C++ compiler. Development is being done mainly with
95 gcc/g++, but some others work also. As of LyX 1.6.0, you need at
98 * The Qt4 library, at least version 4.2.0. For all features
99 newer versions (e.g. Qt 4.5) are recommended.
101 Read the file "INSTALL" for more information on compiling.
103 Okay, I've installed LyX. What now?
105 Once you've installed it, and everything looks fine, go read
106 the "Introduction" item under the Help menu. You should follow
107 the instructions there, which tell you to read (or at least skim)
108 the Tutorial. After that, you should also read "Help>LaTeX
109 configuration" which provides info on your LaTeX configuration
110 as LyX sees it. You might be missing a package or two that you'd
113 User-level configuration is possible via the Tools>Preferences menu.
115 Does LyX have support for non-English speakers/writers/readers?
117 Yes. LyX supports writing in many languages, including
118 right-to-left languages like Arabic or Hebrew.
120 Menus and error messages have been translated to many languages.
121 For the status of the different translations, see
122 http://www.lyx.org/I18n
124 Keymaps can ease typing in many languages.
126 Internet resources of relevance to LyX
128 The LyX homepage contains valuable information about LyX and the
129 various LyX mailing lists, as well as links to mirrors and other
130 LyX homepages around the world:
133 The LyX Wiki is the place where users can share information on
134 setting up and using LyX.
137 The main LyX archive site:
138 ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/
140 The LyX Development page has information about the development
141 effort. LyX is under Subversion control, so you can get the very
142 latest sources from there at any time.
143 http://www.lyx.org/devel
144 ftp://ftp.devel.lyx.org/pub/lyx/
146 How do I submit a bug report?
148 If possible, read the Introduction found under the Help menu in LyX.
149 You'll find detailed info on submitting bug reports there.
151 If you can't do that, send details to the LyX Developers' mailing
152 list, or use the LyX bug tracker at http://www.lyx.org/trac/.
153 Don't forget to mention which version you are having problems with!
155 How can I participate in the development of LyX?
157 Any help with the development of LyX is greatly appreciated ---
158 after all, LyX wouldn't be what it is today without the help
159 of volunteers. We need your help!
161 If you want to work on LyX, you should contact the developer's
162 mailing list for discussion on how to do your stuff. LyX is being
163 cleaned up, and therefore it's important to follow some rules.
164 Read about those rules in development/Code_rules/.
166 If you don't know C++, there are many other ways to
167 contribute. Write documentation. Help to internationalize LyX
168 by translating documentation or menus/error messages, or by
169 writing a new keymap. Write a new textclass. Find bugs (but
170 please read the list of known bugs first). Contribute money.
171 Or just offer feature suggestions (but please read the online
174 Thank you for trying LyX. We appreciate your feedback in the mailing