What's new in 0.12 compared to LyX version 0.10.7?
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[Document written 1997-04-03 by Asger Alstrup (alstrup@diku.dk)]

After the release of LyX v0.10, the LyX Team entered a long phase of code
clean-up. The long term goals of this process were (and remain) support for
LaTeX import, multiple windows, and perhaps a toolkit switch (we have 
decided to wait with the choice till after the kernel rewrite.)

At this point in the project, we've managed to clean up a lot of things,
but have not yet started with the kernel rewrite. The kernel rewrite is
a lengthy cycle of designing, implementing, testing, improving, etc., so
the LyX Team decided to release version 0.12 before the kernel rewrite is
initiated.

Among the major new features that made it thus far, we have:

- Updated documentation
  The documentation has been almost completely rewritten by our special
  documentation team.  The result is something we are really proud of.

- Updated math editor
  MathEd in LyX 0.10.7 had a few alpha-features enabled that weren't
  completely stable (most noticable cut & paste). Those have been fully
  implemented and new features have been added.

- Support for internationalization
  You can run LyX in your native language!  At the moment, translations
  for Norwegian and Swedish are included.  Please contact lyx@via.ecp.fr
  if you want to make your own translation.

- OS/2 XFree port
  Ports to non-X systems is considered practically impossible at the moment.

- New advanced configuration scheme
  LyX now uses a unique auto-configuration scheme that makes the
  complicated job of setting up LyX to match your Unix and LaTeX
  installation easier.

- Improved speed
  Intensive profiling and bug fixing have improved the overall speed of 
  LyX tremendously.

- Improved look & feel
  The user interface looks more snappy, and interaction has been
  simplified. Now LyX should also be enjoyable on resolutions from
  monochrome 640x480 up to the capabilities of your hardware.

- Bug fixes
  Most of the reported bugs (and many others :-) have been fixed. LyX is
  to be considered as "stable beta" software, whatever that means.

- Improved source code quality
  Almost all source files in LyX have been rewritten and cleaned up to
  some extend. It's no secret that the LyX source code has been pretty
  messy. Much of it still is, but things are improving at a breath taking 
  pace.

Other than that, a long list of small improvements that make the every day
use of LyX easier and more fun, have been realized:

- Much better table support
- Fax support
- Export Ascii support
- Rudimentary support for multipart documents
- Support for colored text
- Better support for paper sizes and margins
- Better support for vertical spaces
- 216 different bullets in a nice pop-up
- New document classes: slides, foils, RevTeX, aapaper
- Support for bibliographies and indexes
- Automatic running of LaTeX until all dependencies are resolved.
- Support for versioning control
- WYSIWYG rotation of figures
- Support for minipages
- Improved support for ISO-8859-2-7
- Typographic checking with ChkTeX
- You can use spaces in document names
- Improved display of accents, optional hyphens, labels and more
- Now it's safe to close windows and popups with the window manager
- Problems with display depths and large fonts resolved

and much much more among the 25,000 new lines of code.

Please read CHANGES for full details.

What will the future bring?
---------------------------

It's hard to predict, especially the future. However, the LyX Team has
agreed to work on these things, in loose order of priority:

- Use a subset of LaTeX as document format.
  At the moment, LyX uses a special format for storing of documents. We'd
  like to scrap that and replace it with a selected subset of LaTeX.
  This is the main goal of the 0.13 series.
  Current status: Early design phase.

- Support multiple windows.
  At the moment, each instance of LyX can only show one document at the
  time. The goal is to support several windows with several document
  views in each. This is not easy to attain, because the LyX kernel is not
  prepared for this.
  Status: Work in progress.

- Scripting/macro language.
  It would be nice to have a scripting language of some sort. An easy
  implementation could be done without too much effort.
  Status: Nothing yet.

- Toolkit switch.
  This is not fixed in stone. However, the code is being restructured so
  that a toolkit switch is easier to do.
  Status: Work in progress.

Offers for help for any of the above (or anything else that can improve
LyX) are solicited. Contact lyx@via.ecp.fr if you want to contribute to
the LyX effort.

Enjoy,

The LyX Team
