This is a LyX development release --------------------------------- The LyX Team has adopted a new development model and tries to keep the development version stable as far as possible, but since the program is changing, the development version will be less stable than the stable releases. So, don't use this development version on your production documents without testing everything in depth first. What is LyX? LyX is an advanced open-source "document processor". Unlike standard word processors, LyX encourages writing based on the structure of your documents, not their appearance. It lets you concentrate on writing, leaving details of visual layout to the software. You can read more about this concept in the documentation, which you'll find under the Help menu. If you plan to use LyX, you really should read about it to be able to make the best of it. What is LyX not? LyX is not just another word processor that claims to be a Desktop Publishing program. It's a more modern way of creating documents that look much nicer, but without wasting time with layout-fiddling. For these reasons you might need little time to get used to the differences. If you are looking for a free Desktop Publishing program for Unix, you will be disappointed. What do I need to run LyX? A Unix-like system or OS/2 with XFree At least X11 Release 5 A decent LaTeX2e installation (e.g. teTeX or NTeX) not older than 1995/12/01 Optionally ghostscript and ghostview (or compatible) Perl5.002 or later to import LaTeX files into LyX What's new? Read NEWS. How do I install a binary distribution of LyX? Unpack it and run it. We recommend unpacking it in /usr/local, but it should work anywhere. In particular, you can try LyX in a temporary directory before installing permanently by typing "bin/lyx". We recommend that you configure LyX system-wide by copying the file share/lyx/lyxrc.example to share/lyx/lyxrc, and then reading and modifying it. You should read the notes regarding this particular build in the file README.bin. How do I upgrade from an earlier LyX version? Read the file UPGRADING for info on this subject. If you are upgrading from version 0.12.0 or later, you don't need to do anything special. What do I need to compile LyX from the source distribution? 1. A good c++ compiler. Development is being done mainly on gcc/g++, but many others work. 2. The Xforms library version 0.88 (recommended) or 0.89. 3. LibXpm version 4.7 (or newer). Read the file "INSTALL" for more information on compiling. Okay, I've installed LyX. What now? Once you've installed it, and everything looks fine, go read the "Introduction" item under the Help menu. You should follow the instructions there, which tell you to read (or at least skim) the Tutorial. After that, you should also read "Help/LaTeX configuration" which provides info on your LaTeX configuration as LyX sees it. You might be missing a package or two that you'd like to have. User-level configuration is possible with a file "~/.lyx/lyxrc". You can use the system-wide lyxrc file (which should be somewhere like /usr/local/share/lyx/lyxrc) as a template for your personal lyxrc file. Remember that a personal configuration file will be used instead of, not in addition to, any system-wide file. Does LyX have support for non-English speakers/writers/readers? Yes. LyX supports writing in many languages. Menus and error messages have been translated to the following languages (* means there are language-specific keyboard menu bindings as well): Catalan (ca) Czech (cs) Danish (da) German (de) * Spanish (es) Finnish (fi) French (fr) * Hungarian (hu) * Italian (it) Dutch (nl) Norwegian (no) Polish (pl) Portuguese (pt) * Russian (ru) Slovenian (sl) Swedish (sv) * Turkish (tr) Walloon (wa) Keymaps can ease typing in one or more of the following languages: Czech French, Swiss French German, Swiss German Greek Hungarian (Magyar) Polish Portugese Romanian Slovenian Turkish Internet resources of relevance to LyX The LyX homepage contains valuable information about LyX and the various LyX mailing lists, as well as links to mirrors and other LyX homepages around the world: http://www.lyx.org/ Main LyX archive site: ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/ The LyX Development page has information about the development effort. LyX is now under CVS control, so you can get the very latest sources from there at any time. http://www.devel.lyx.org/ ftp://www.devel.lyx.org/pub/lyx/ How do I submit a bug report? If possible, read the "Known Bugs" document found under the Help menu. You'll find detailed info on submitting bug reports there. You should also check the BUGS file in this directory. If you can't do that, send details to the LyX Developers mailing list. Don't forget to mention which version you are having problems with! How can I participate in the development of LyX? Any help with the development of LyX is greatly appreciated-- after all LyX wouldn't be what it is today without the help of volunteers. We need your help! If you want to work on LyX, you should contact the developer's mailing list for discussion on how to do your stuff. LyX is being cleaned up, and therefore it's important to follow some rules. Read about those rules in development/Code_rules/. If you don't know C++, there are many other ways to contribute. Write documentation. Help to internationalize LyX by translating documentation or menus/error messages, or by writing a new keymap. Write a new textclass. Work on reLyX (Perl). Find bugs (but please read the list of known bugs first). Contribute money. Or just offer feature suggestions (but please read the online TODO list first). Thank you for trying LyX, and we appreciate your feedback in the mailing lists. The LyX Team.