Public release of LyX version 1.0.0
===================================
LyX is an advanced open source document processor running on many Unix
platforms. It is called a "document processor", because unlike standard
word processors, LyX encourages an approach to writing based on the
structure of your documents, not their appearance. LyX lets you
concentrate on writing, leaving details of visual layout to the software.
LyX automates formatting according to predefined rule sets, yielding
consistency throughout even the most complex documents. LyX produces high
quality, professional output -- using LaTeX, an open source, industrial
strength typesetting engine, in the background.
With LyX, short notes or letters are a snap. LyX really shines, though,
when composing complex documents like technical documentation, doctoral
theses and conference proceedings.
LyX has undergone a quantum leap in functionality over the past 18 months.
This release offers extensive control over fonts, margins, headers/footers,
spacing/indents, justification, bullet types in multilevel lists, a
sophisticated table editor, a version control interface for collaborative
projects -- the list goes on and on. LyX 1.0 includes many standard formats
and templates such as for letters, articles, books, overheads, even
Hollywood scripts. Work continues on a growing library of "plug-in" formats
and templates, in the best open-source tradition.
LyX presents the user with the familiar face of a WYSIWYG word processor.
However, users familiar with Microsoft Word or WordPerfect may be
perplexed by certain 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. Welcome to the LyX paradigm!
You set the "ground rules" and place the elements of your document into
proper categories. Let's say, you tell LyX that a certain line is a
Section title. LaTeX adds the Section to your table of contents, places
the Section name into your page header, gives it a special "bold"
appearance on the page, assigns it a number or label, and tells other
parts of your document what page it's on, for references and citations.
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 "raw" LaTeX will find that LyX offers full LaTeX transparency and
import/export of LaTeX documents.
LyX contains a fully integrated formula editor which is easily
best-of-breed, adding WYSIWYG point-and-click convenience to LaTeX's
legendary math typesetting capabilities. If you're into scientific
authoring, this is the jewel in the crown. TRY IT!
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 citations), 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).
The approach has ergonomic advantages. You can enlarge the screen fonts
to suit your tastes but still have all the text on the screen -- without
affecting the margins and other formatting of your final output. Thus,
you can work comfortably on small displays (or if your eyes are tired or
your eyesight is not so good) and get the final output right with just a
couple of page previews using xdvi or ghostview.
LyX includes excellent and copious on-line help: a beginner's tutorial,
user's guide, and additional manuals describing advanced features. LyX's
menu system exists in a dozen different (Latin character set) languages,
selectable at run time.
LyX conspicuously lacks a filter for importing MS Word documents. The
LyX Team considers this not worth the effort, 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,
you should retain a traditional word processor, e.g., Corel's WordPerfect
for Linux.
LyX runs on standard Unix platforms, including Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD,
Solaris, IRIX, HP-UX, AIX, ... even OS/2 and Cygnus/Win32 (somewhat
experimentally), and provides native support for PostScript(tm) fonts
and figures.
More about LyX, including screen shots and the LyX Graphic Tour, 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 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 made as a proof-of-principle, to
demo how good looking LyX could be made on this desktop environment,
and implement some advanced features which KDE, and its Qt toolkit,
facilitate. There is an intention to re-integrate KLyX into the LyX
code base; by version 1.2, LyX should be GUI toolkit/desktop agnostic.
Availability
------------
LyX is distributed under the GNU General Public License (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 XForms version 0.81, 0.86 or 0.88 to compile your own version.
Version 0.88 is highly recommended. Of course you also need LaTeX; the
teTeX distribution is recommended.
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 Tour can be found at:
http://www.lyx.org/lgt-1.0/lgt.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
