X-Git-Url: https://git.lyx.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;ds=sidebyside;f=ANNOUNCE;h=a6e74b5d069156a42bec2469e496c0223e13b225;hb=d075cb25b89b7bd2ac3d293c9db7c825d58770dd;hp=6bd5d793eb799072d4e8c24ce3f7915925546458;hpb=a1daa5c4a69120344d7719cf80995e28e8e6e5aa;p=lyx.git diff --git a/ANNOUNCE b/ANNOUNCE index 6bd5d793eb..a6e74b5d06 100644 --- a/ANNOUNCE +++ b/ANNOUNCE @@ -1,108 +1,241 @@ -Public release of LyX version 1.1.2 +Public release of LyX version 1.5.0 (release candidate 1) =================================== -What is LyX? ------------- +We are glad to announce the release of LyX 1.5.0 (release candidate 1). -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. +We encourage users to try this release candidate and report +any feedback or problems to lyx-devel at lists.lyx.org. -With the familiar face of a WISYWIG word processor, LyX produces high -quality, professional output -- using LaTeX, an industrial -strength typesetting engine. No knowledge of LaTeX is required to -use LyX; however, there is also a "TeX mode" which allows you to enter -plain LaTeX commands. +The difference to the last beta release is due to bug fixes only, +no new features are allowed at this stage of development. -All in all, LyX is a complete environment for writing documents. It has -superior support for scientific writing, but works well for any kind of +Compared with the latest stable release, this is the culmination of +one year of hard work, and we sincerely hope you will enjoy the +results. The changes are too numerous to summarize in a few words, +with initial unicode support being the flagship among the new +features, see the end of this announcement for details. + +As usual with a major release, a lot of work that is not directly +visible has taken place. The core of LyX has seen more cleanups and +some of the new features are the direct results of this work. + +The file RELEASE-NOTES lists some known issues with this release +compared to the latest stable release (LyX 1.4.4). An updated list of +issues might later be found at http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/ReleaseNotes + + +In case you are wondering what LyX is, here is what +http://www.lyx.org/ has to say on the subject: + + 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. + +You can download LyX 1.5.0beta3 here (the .bz2 are compressed with +bzip2, which yields smaller files): + + ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/devel/lyx-1.5.0beta3.tar.gz + ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/devel/lyx-1.5.0beta3.tar.bz2 + +Note that due to the amount of changes no patch is provided to upgrade +from version 1.4.4. + +Prebuilt binaries (rpms for linux distributions, Mac OS X and Windows +installers) should soon be available at + ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/devel/ + + +If you find what you think is a bug in LyX 1.5.0beta3, you may either +e-mail the LyX developers' mailing list (lyx-devel @ lists.lyx.org), or open +a bug report at http://bugzilla.lyx.org + +If you're having trouble using the new version of LyX, or have a question, +first check out http://www.lyx.org/help/. If you can't find the answer there, +e-mail the LyX users' list (lyx-users @ lists.lyx.org). + +Enjoy! + +The LyX team. + + +What's new in version 1.5.0 (beta 3)? +---------------------------- + +* Unicode + +LyX 1.5's big goal was to use unicode internally and so resolve a slew +of existing problems with special characters and non-alphabetic +languages. LyX 1.5 is able to output unicode (in addition to +encodings current available), so that you can use LaTeX's new utf8 +encoding or such brand new typesetting systems as XeTeX. +Since the change to unicode touched much of the code base and some +areas still need a cleanup it is very likely that some bugs related to +the unicode transition still exist. Please have a look at the Known +bugs in LyX 1.5 page if you encounter a bug that seems to be related +to unicode. If it's not there, then please report it to the lyx-devel +mailing list. + +* Integrated CJK support + +The very first result of the Unicode transition is that we have finally +merged in the externally maintained CJK-LyX branch. +The languages Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are now supported in +the user interface. +Note that from now on, former encoding settings for these languages +done via ERT or the document preamble will lead to LaTeX-errors! + +* Multiple views of the same buffer + +LyX can now display multiple views of the same buffer. I.e., you can +now open a single document in multiple windows and work on different +parts of it synchronously. + +* Outliner and embedded TOC + +LyX has another long-awaited feature: a basic outliner mode, in which +you can move chapters and sections around in the Table of Contents +dialog. (The outliner has been backported and was released with LyX +1.4.4.) The TOC dialog is now a dock widget, embedded in the main window. + +* Session management + +LyX is now able to remember window size and position and it will +reopen the documents you worked on last time around. If you've +selected the feature in the Preferences dialog, it'll even move the +cursor to the place you were working on last! Furthermore, toolbars +can (finally!) be switched on/off in View->Toolbars and moved about in +the LyX window. The session management will remember their state. + +* Source code Viewer + +As a kind of "anti-preview-latex", a dialog was implemented that lets +you view the source code of a given paragraph/selection or the whole document. -Read more about LyX (including screen shots) at: +* New Font Selection Interface - http://www.lyx.org/ +LyX's font selection abilities have been one of its weakest and most +outdated components. A completely new interface was implemented that +provides access to the power of LaTeX's font selection scheme. + +* Tabular extensions -What can LyX do? ----------------- +LyX's table support is certainly less powerful than that of +LaTeX. support for the booktabs package was implemented, which +provides beautiful and elegant tabulars. + -A very incomplete feature list: +* Nomenclatures -- "standard" word processing: fonts, cut & paste, infinite undo... -- footnotes, citations, cross-referencing, faxes, spellchecking -- almost any math expression (with a simple, but powerfull interface) -- automatic, multilevel outline support (enumerated or bullets) -- tables and embedded postscript figures support -- import LaTeX or ASCII -- export LaTeX, ASCII, DVI, PostScript, LinuxDoc-SGML, DocBook-SGML -- fair support for non-English documents and/or menus -- extensive documentation, including a tutorial -- version control using RCS +Native LyX support for the nomencl package was implemented. With this, +you can treat your document with all sorts of nomenclatures, +glossaries and fancy notations. -How stable is LyX? ------------------- +* Tabbed Widget -This release is considered stable, but as with any software, you should -take appropriate back-up steps in a production environment. +LyX now uses tabbed widgets to display multiple documents. -Where can I get it? -------------------- +* Enhanced Math Toolbars -LyX is distributed under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), which -means that you can not only use it freely, but also modify and -redistribute it, provided that you include the source of the program. +The math toolbar was enhanced significantly. Drop down menus were +added, that allowed to integrate all of the math panel' content to the +math toolbars. +Since this input method is much easier than the clumsy panel, the math +panel itself has been removed and superseded by the toolbars. -The main LyX site is +* Frontend News - ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/ +LyX 1.5 will use the Qt4 toolkit. This is especially good news for +Windows users, since there's an official, GPL version of Qt4. They no +longer have to rely on an unofficial port of the Unix Qt3 library to +Windows. The good old XForms frontend went the way of the dodo. It +was both hated and loved, and certainly shaped the unique look of LyX +in the past. It was finally killed off, however, by the switch to +unicode. The Qt3 frontend was removed. The work on the GTK frontend +has been transferred to a branch because its development has +essentially stalled. -with mirrors at +* Change tracking enhancements - ftp://alpha.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/pub/lyx - ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/lyx/ - ftp://ftp.sdsc.edu/pub/other/lyx/ - ftp://ftp.fciencias.unam.mx/pub/Lyx/ - ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/LyX/ - -The source code package is available at: +Major parts of the change tracking code were rewritten addressing +several problems that existed in the existing implementation. - ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/stable/lyx-1.0.4.tar.gz - ftp://ftp.devel.lyx.org/pub/lyx/lyx-1.0.4.tar.gz +* Converter file cache -and at the mirrors listed above. +A cache for converted files, such as included figures, was +implemented. This can speed up LyX's performance considerably when +displaying documents with many included figures that need conversion +to a format that can be rendered on screen. The converter file cache +is enabled by default. -You need to have XForms version 0.81, 0.86 or 0.88 to compile your own -version. Version 0.88 is highly recomended. LyX should also compile -with 0.89. +The default maximum age of a cached file is 6 months. You can change +that with the line -Ready-to-run precompiled binaries for various platforms are available at: + \converter_cache_maxage xxx - ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/bin/1.0.4/ +where xxx is the maximum age in seconds, in your preferences file. -Binaries for i386-Linux are also available at your local sunsite mirror: +* Unified Windows installer - ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/editors/lyx-1.0.4-bin.tar.gz +The two windows installers are being merged and bug reports regarding +both installers are welcome. -Credits -------- +* Program listings -The LyX Team is composed of volunteers from around the world. Many, many -people have helped make the 1.0 release possible, including: +The traditional way to insert program listings in LyX involves the use +of the LyX-Code style. This option works quite well for short snippets but +does not support in-line code segments or the inclusion of external files. - Lars Gullik Bjoennes, Alejandro Aguilar Sierra, Asger Alstrup, - Jean-Marc Lasgouttes, Juergen Vigna, John P. Weiss, Bernhard Iselborn, - Andre Spiegel, Allan Rae, Henner Zeller, Robert van der Kamp, - David L. Johnson, Amir Karger, Joacim Persson, Peter Suetterlin, - SMiyata, Alkis Polyzotis, ... +Using the listings latex package as the backend a new inset was added that +supports all these three ways of listing computer programs. -Special thanks should go to Matthias Ettrich who started it all. +* Minor user interface improvements -Feedback --------- +Apart from the described major changes, several minor improvements of +the user interface have been made, such as: -Please direct any comments or questions to the appropriate mailing list as -described on the LyX homepage (http://www.lyx.org/). + - Syntax highlighting for the user preamble and the LaTeX log file + - Better parsing of BibTeX databases (in the citation dialog) + - Support optional argument for environments -Enjoy! +* Enhanced clipboard/selection handling + +Clipboard has been tuned to work better with other applications. Parallel +to clipboard usages, the *nix way of using middle-button to paste +selected text is enhanced, and is also available under windows (but +within lyx only). Selection of lyx text is now persistent in that +you can paste the selected text using middle button multiple times, +even after the selection has been cleared. + + +* Under the hood + +As usual, one big task has been the ongoing code cleanup of the LyX +core. Performing this cleanup makes the code more understandable and +easier to maintain. It also leads inevitably to a more robust +application. Nonetheless, it's an unfortunate fact of life that ugly +code is sometimes faster than pretty code. We're well aware that LyX +1.4 is slower than LyX 1.3. One important goal of this 1.5 development +series has been to bring this speed back. + +** Bug fixes -The LyX Team +Lots of long-lasting bugs have been fixed, as documented in LyX +bugzilla. Probably some new ones have been introduced instead ;-)