-Preamble: LyX version scheme
-
- In September of 1999 the LyX Team decided that we could no
- longer successfully use the two strand development process
- like the Linux kernel. We are in the process of switching to a
- development model similar to that used by Fetchmail where we
- will only make small stable changes between releases and
- release more often. All future releases should be stable
- although we are currently in a transition period where some
- major changes have to be introduced and are likely to affect
- the stability in the short term.
-
- These changes include:
-
- * Use of C++ Standard Library features such as the Standard
- Template Library (STL), string and streams.
-
- * Establishing the foundations of GUI/system independence,
-
- * Rearrangement of the directory structure.
-
- Once the transition is over the 1.1 series should be very
- stable and we will then release 1.2.0. This new series will be
- in a state of continual advancement. Note the word
- "advancement" and not "development." Development will be
- occurring in branches of CVS and once the feature/modification
- has proved stable it will be merged into the main releases.
-
- LyX now uses a continuous numbering scheme where odd or
- even numbering is no longer significant. Prereleases are
- labeled with a "pre" suffix and any fixes required between
- stable releases have a "fix" suffix. Thus there are three
- possible file names:
-
- lyx-1.1.5.tar.gz -- stable release
- lyx-1.1.5fix2.tar.gz -- bug fix of the 1.1.5 stable release.
- lyx-1.1.5pre1.tar.gz -- potentially unstable test release
-
- The fix releases contain no new functionality; only fixes that
- have already made their way into the cvs repository.
-
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.
+ LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to
+ writing based on the structure of your documents, not their
+ appearance. It is released under a Free Software / Open Source
+ license.
+
+ LyX is for people that write and want their writing to look great,
+ right out of the box. No more endless tinkering with formatting
+ details, 'finger painting' font attributes or futzing around with
+ page boundaries. You just write. In the background, Prof. Knuth's
+ legendary TeX typesetting engine makes you look good.
+
+ On screen, LyX looks like any word processor; its printed output
+ --- or richly cross-referenced PDF, just as readily produced ---
+ looks like nothing else. Gone are the days of industrially bland
+ .docs, all looking similarly not-quite-right, yet coming out
+ unpredictably different on different printer drivers. Gone are the
+ crashes 'eating' your dissertation the evening before going to
+ press.
+
+ LyX is stable and fully featured. It is a multi-platform, fully
+ internationalized application running natively on Unix/Linux and
+ the Macintosh and modern Windows platforms.
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
+ Either:
+ * a Unix-like system (including Windows with Cygwin)
+ * Windows 7 or newer
+ * Mac OS 10.13 or newer
+
+ A decent LaTeX2e installation (e.g. TeX Live for Linux, MikTeX for
+ Windows).
+
+ Python (2.7 or 3.5 and newer) to convert old LyX files and for
+ helper scripts.
+
+How does the LyX version scheme work?
+
+ LyX uses a contiguous numbering scheme for versions, where a
+ number "2.x.y" indicates a stable release '2.x', maintenance
+ release 'y'. In other words, LyX 2.3.0 was the first stable
+ release in the 2.3-series of LyX. At the time of writing, the
+ latest maintenance release in the 2.3-series is LyX 2.3.7.
+
+ Please note that maintenance releases are designed primarily to
+ fix bugs, and that the file format will _never_ change due to a
+ maintenance release.
+
+ In addition to the stable releases and maintenance releases, some
+ users may want to give a ``release candidate'' a try. This is a
+ release that should be stable enough for daily work, but yet may
+ be potentially unstable. If no major bugs are found, the release
+ candidate is soon released as the first stable release in a new
+ series. To summarize, there are three possible types of file names
+ that are of interest to normal users:
+
+ lyx-2.3.0.tar.gz -- stable release, first in the 2.3-series
+ lyx-2.2.4.tar.gz -- fourth maintenance release of LyX 2.2
+ lyx-2.4.0rc1.tar.gz -- potentially unstable release candidate
+
+ Note that the goal is not parallel development as for the Linux
+ kernel --- the team is too small to afford that --- but rather to
+ include all the simple and safe bug fixes. This is so that the
+ maintenance burden on us is not too high, and so that system
+ administrators can install new releases without fear. Experience
+ shows that these releases will contain a few new features, and
+ that the bulk of the patches will be documentation updates.
+
+ If you get the source from Git, the version string will look like
+ one of:
+
+ 2.3.1dev -- this is the stable branch on which maintenance
+ release 2.3.1 will eventually be tagged.
+ 2.4.0dev -- this is the main branch on which stable
+ release 2.4.0 will eventually be tagged.
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.
+ Read NEWS.
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.
+ Read the file UPGRADING for info on this subject.
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).
+ * A C++11 compiler. Development is being done mainly with gcc/g++,
+ but clang and MSVC are known to work too. As of LyX 2.4.0, you
+ need at least gcc 4.9.
- Read the file "INSTALL" for more information on compiling.
+ * The Qt library, at least version 5.2 (5.6 recommended). It is
+ also possible to compile with Qt 6.x.
+
+ 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.
+ 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.
+ User-level configuration is possible via the Tools>Preferences menu.
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):
-
- Basque (eu)
- Catalan (ca)
- Czech (cs)
- Danish (da)
- German (de) *
- Spanish (es)
- Finnish (fi)
- French (fr) *
- Hebrew (he)
- Hungarian (hu) *
- Italian (it)
- Dutch (nl)
- Norwegian (no)
- Polish (pl)
- Portuguese (pt) *
- Romanian (ro)
- Russian (ru)
- Slovenian (sl)
- Swedish (sv) *
- Turkish (tr)
- Walloon (wa)
-
- Keymaps can ease typing in one or more of the following languages:
-
- Arabic
- Czech
- French, Swiss French
- German, Swiss German
- Greek
- Hebrew
- Hungarian (Magyar)
- Polish
- Portugese
- Romanian
- Slovenian
- Turkish
+ Yes. LyX supports writing in many languages, including
+ right-to-left languages like Arabic or Hebrew.
+
+ Menus and error messages have been translated to many languages.
+ For the status of the different translations, see
+ http://www.lyx.org/I18n
+
+ Keymaps can ease typing in many languages.
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:
+ 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:
+ The LyX Wiki is the place where users can share information on
+ setting up and using LyX.
+ http://wiki.lyx.org/
+
+ The 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/
+ The LyX Development page has information about the development
+ effort. LyX is under Git version control, so you can get the very
+ latest sources from there at any time.
+ http://www.lyx.org/Development
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 possible, read the Introduction found under the Help menu in LyX.
+ You'll find detailed info on submitting bug reports there.
- 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!
+ If you can't do that, send details to the LyX Developers' mailing
+ list, or use the LyX bug tracker at
+ http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome .
+ Don't forget to mention which version you are having problems with!
-How can I participate in the development of LyX?
+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!
+ 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 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).
+ 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. 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
+Thank you for trying LyX. We appreciate your feedback in the mailing
lists.
The LyX Team.
projects / lyx.git / blobdiff