> >>>>> "Martin" == Martin Vermeer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> Martin> Dear LyXnicians, Here is my choice of the pre-final LyX-PR
> Martin> doc.
>
> Martin> (Did I forget anything?)
>
> Yes. The PR. :)
>
> JMarc
Oops... well it's in The Usual Place (no not ftp.kernel.org)
And below (I hope this time)
Martin
Public release of LyX version 1.0.0
===================================
LyX, the Open Source Document Processor
---------------------------------------
LyX is an open source document processor for Linux/X11 and several other
operating systems. We call it a "document processor", for unlike the
popular word processors, LyX supports and encourages an approach to
writing based on the structure of your documents, not their appearance.
LyX automates the layout and formatting of your documents following one
of a collection of predefined rule sets, yielding concistency throughout
even the most complex documents. LyX lets you concentrate on writing,
leaving the handling of visual layout details to software. LyX produces
high quality, professionally typeset output. Short notes or letters are a
snap. LyX really shines, though, when composing complex documents like
technical documentation, doctoral theses and conference proceedings --
all of these real-life success stories from people using LyX.
LyX 1.0 includes many standard formats and templates -- e.g. for letters,
articles, books, overheads, even Hollywood scripts -- clickable by mouse
to produce documents of a particular format. There is a growing library
of formats and templates, allowing the user to compose a wide range of
documents. LyX has undergone a quantum leap in functionality over the last
18 months. This release offers extensive control over fonts, margins,
headers/footers, spacing/indents, justification, bullet types in
multilevel bullet lists, a sophisticated table editor, an emacs-style
version control interface for collaborative document authoring -- the list
goes on and on.
While LyX presents the user with the familiar face of a WYSIWYG word
processor, users familiar with, e.g., Microsoft Word, will be initially
perplexed by basic LyX behavior. For example, repeatedly hitting the space
bar has no effect! This is by design: LyX puts in the proper spacing for
you, intelligently. And so it is throughout: Welcome to the LyX paradigm!
You only set the "ground rules" for your document, leaving the finer
points of document layout to LyX's industrial strength typesetting engine,
the open source LaTeX package. Let's say that you tell LyX a certain
line is a Section title. LaTeX takes care of the behind-the-scenes work,
like adding the Section to your table of contents, placing the Section
name into your page header, starting a new page, assigning the Section
a number or label, formatting its appearance on the page, and telling
other parts of your document what page it's on, for references. Many of
the headaches of traditional word processing just vanish.
LaTeX easily processes hundreds of chapter and section labels, thousands
of footnotes and inserted graphics, intricate cross-references, complex
multi-level outlines, formatted tables of contents and lists of
illustrations, and exhaustive indices or bibliographies, and is rightly
famous for the superb quality of its output. Users already acquainted
with LaTeX will find that they lose none of the power: LyX offers full
LaTeX transparency and features import/export of LaTeX documents.
LyX contains a fully integrated formula editor which without exaggeration
must be called best-of-breed, adding WYSIWYG point-and-click convenience
to LaTeX's legendary math writing capabilities. If you're into scientific
authoring, this is the jewel in the crown. TRY IT!
LyX has excellent and copious on-line help, including a beginner's
tutorial, a user's guide, and additional manuals describing LyX's more
specialized features. LyX's menu system has been localized into a dozen
different (Latin character set) languages, each selectable at run time.
Think of LyX as the first WYSIWYM word processor: What You See Is What
You MEAN. All the common formatting intelligence of LaTeX is presented
to the user through visual controls, like a table-of-contents window
acting as an outline browser, "live" reference links to figure and table
captions, sections, pages and literature references, automatic
multilevel section and list numbering, and more. You tell LyX how to
treat particular words and lines in your document: e.g., this is standard
text, this is a Section title, this is a footnote, this is a caption
beneath an inserted graphic. As you click your selections, the WYSIWYM
interface gives you clean, straightforward "visual cues" (actually, very
WYSIWYG-like). LaTeX then processes your document into professionally
typeset output, to be conveniently previewed with xdvi or ghostview.
LyX's WYSIWYM principle can be an ergonomic advantage. If your eyes are
tired or your eyesight is not what it used to be, just enlarge the screen
fonts, which does not affect what the final document will look like. You
can work comfortably also on small displays and get the final output
right with just a couple of page previews.
LyX conspicuously lacks one feature: import of MS Word documents. The
LyX Team considers this not worth it, as word processors in general are
moving away from proprietary formats to the open XML standard. So, as
long as you need continued access to legacy documents, do retain a
traditional word processor, e.g., Corel's WordPerfect for Linux.
LyX runs in standard Unix/X11 environments (Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2, most
proprietary Unixes, even Cygnus/WinNT somewhat experimentally), and
provides native support for PostScript(tm) fonts and figures.
All in all, LyX is a complete environment for writing documents. As for
scientific authoring and typesetting -- if that's what you're doing, get
LyX and LaTeX NOW, and never look back. But also for general word
processing, by new or inexperienced users or users with only Windows
experience, LyX is eminently suitable.
More about LyX, including screen shots and the LyX Graphic Tutorial, at:
http://www.lyx.org/
What's new compared to LyX version 0.12.0?
------------------------------------------
Most importantly, import of existing LaTeX documents using the new
reLyX perl script. Better support for SGML/LinuxDoc, tables, and
indexing/bibliographies, etc. Summing up, it's just better looking,
better working, better documented, and lots of bugs have been fixed.
How stable is LyX?
------------------
This release is considered stable, but as with any software, you should
take appropriate back-up steps in a production environment.
What about KLyX?
----------------
KLyX is a port of LyX version 0.12.0 to KDE done primarily by Matthias
Ettrich and Kalle Dalheimer. It was done as a proof-of-principle, to
demo how good looking LyX could be made on this desktop environment,
and implement some advanced features which this environment facilitates.
There is an intention to re-integrate KLyX into the LyX code base; by
version 1.2, LyX should be GUI toolkit/desktop agnostic.
Where can I get it?
-------------------
LyX is distributed under the GNU General Public Lisense (GPL), which
means specifically that you can use it for free. See http://www.gnu.org/.
The main LyX site is
ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/
with mirrors at
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:
ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/stable/lyx-1.0.0.tar.gz
ftp://ftp.devel.lyx.org/pub/lyx/lyx-1.0.0.tar.gz
and at the mirrors listed above.
You need to have XForms version 0.81, 0.86 or 0.88 to compile your own
version. Version 0.88 is highly recommended.
Ready-to-run precompiled binaries for various platforms are available at:
ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/bin/1.0.0/
Binaries for i386-Linux are also available at your local metalab
(previously known as sunsite) mirror:
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/editors/lyx-1.0.0-bin.tar.gz
Undoubtedly binaries packaged for various distributions (rpm, deb) will
appear soon on metalab.
Information and binaries for Cygnus/WinNT can be found at:
http://www.cs.uu.nl/~steven/lyx.html
The LyX Graphic Tutorial can be found at:
http://www.cs.uu.nl/~steven/lgt/lgt-0.3.html
It is possible to run LyX in a temporary directory before you install it.
About the LyX Team
------------------
The LyX Team is a world wide consortium of volunteer contributors. Many,
many people have helped make the 1.0 release possible, including:
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, ...
Special thanks should go to Matthias Ettrich who started it all.
Feedback
--------
Please direct any comments or questions to the appropriate mailing list as
described on the LyX homepage (http://www.lyx.org/).
Enjoy!
The LyX Team
