-You will need to have both an Xforms library and Xpm library to compile
-LyX. It is imperative that you have the correct versions of these
+First of all, you will also need a recent C++ compiler, where recent
+means that the compilers are close to C++ standard conforming.
+Compilers that are known to compile LyX are egcs 1.1.x, gcc 2.95.x and
+later, and Digital C++ version 6.1 and later. Please tell us your
+experience with other compilers. It is _not_ possible to compile LyX
+with gcc 2.7.x and 2.8.x, and this is not likely to change in the
+future.
+
+Note that, contrary to LyX 1.0.x, LyX 1.2.x makes great use of C++
+Standard Template Library (STL); this means that gcc users will have
+to install the relevant libstdc++ library to be able to compile this
+version.
+
+Both an Xforms and Xpm libraries should be installed to compile LyX.
+It is imperative that you have the correct versions of these