On Tue, 11 Jan 2000, Allan Rae wrote:
> NOT FOR RELEASE
> DO NOT REMOVE THE ABOVE LINE
>
> Target audience: freshmeat, linuxdev.net, slashdot, icewalkers, c.o.l.a.
>
> ####
> [We need a brief introductory paragraph of what and who LyX and The LyX
> Team are. We should be able to pinch that from our previous PR]
[ here's my slightly modified version of Martin's PR]
[Don't want to much otherwise we won't have anything new to say for the
1.2.0 release PR]
LyX is an advanced open-source document processor running on many Unix
platforms and on Windows NT with the Cygwin environment. 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 the
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 by using LaTeX, an open-source, industrial strength typesetting
engine, in the background.
[s/now switching/in the process of switching/]
[s/development process/development model/]
> 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 std::streams (istream, ostream, fstream, strstream)
> * Use of std::string
> * Use of the Standard Template Library (STL),
> * Rearrangement of the directory structure,
> * Use of libtool, automake and autoconf.
>
> 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.
[s/is likely to /will/]
> A new numbering scheme for releases will be used. At present we are
> undecided whether to make known stable releases end in a zero or to
> continue making prereleases of newly merged code. Either way, the
> odd/even development/stable numbering scheme no longer makes any
> sense.
> [RESOLVE THIS BEFORE RELEASE]
>
> The old development strand has been put on ice and we will be backporting
> and improving on the changes we experimented with in that series. Thus,
> the developers gain a stable platform to build upon and users will get
> those wonderful new features sooner. In particular, the move to GUI and
> system independence will be a priority. Development will continue to use
> a CVS repository with each area of change having its own development
> branch. This will allow the developers to test their changes and get them
> stable before they are merged into the main code. Thereby, ensuring that
> each release should be very stable.
>
> If you are interested in a particular area of development then you will be
> able to checkout the appropriate development branch using CVS. If you're
> unable to use CVS then contact one of the developers of that branch and
> ask them to make a snapshot available. A list of current major branches
> and the developer responsible for that branch will be maintained on the
> LyX website. Major branches are likely to include GUI independence and
> right-to-left buffer editting.
[s/your old documents/your existing documents (...)/]
> Our fourth release of the new series is lyx-1.1.4 and contains many of
> the significant changes listed above. This is the fourth transitional
> release and contains many bug fixes. It should be as stable as the
> 1.0.4 release although with all the changes it is certainly possible
> some new bugs have crept in. That said please consider at least
> trying it out on your existing documents (if you've never used LyX
> before give this version a try) and contact the
> <A HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">developers list</a> if you find
> any bugs.
Learn more about LyX, including screen shots, the LyX Graphic Tour and a
list of ftp sites at:
http://www.lyx.org/
> Thanks,
> on behalf of the LyX Team,
> Allan. (ARRae)
