Dear LyX users, with help from Sven (http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-lyx-devel/2008-June/002729.html). I was able to install a test build or LyX 1.6.beta3 on my Debian/testing system.
In order to be able to use 1.5.5 and 1.6.beta3 in parallel, I * copied the files from the package to /usr/local/ * renamed /usr/local/bin/lyx to lyx-1.6 * copied my personal lyx dir to ~/.lyx16 * wrote a small script /usr/local/bin/lyx16:: #!/bin/sh # call LyX 1.6 with alternative user dir lyx-1.6 -userdir ~/.lyx16 $* and now I can start 1.5.5 with `lyx` and 1.6 with `lyx16`. Some first impressions: + Many of my local extensions (math-macros, additonal layouts) can be implemented much cleaner now. (Documentation for layout modules is still missing in the (German) Customisation guide.) + Startup is faster. - Minor glitches like missing translations for new items show that this is a beta version. Some problems remain - Word deletion (Bug #3580) is not fixed in beta3. Bugzilla shows it is "fixed in trunk and branch". Could a beta4 be released soon? - Bugzilla does not have an entry for the 1.6 beta versions, only 1.5.5 and 1.6 (SVN). However, some bugs in 1.6.beta3 are already fixed in SVN -- where should I report bugs? - Export to 1.5.x format creates a file with extension .lyx15 which OTOH is not found by LyX (if the default *.lyx filter is on). There is no way to specify the name of exported files (this is a generic problem, also in earlier versions). I wonder whether it is save enaugh to use 1.6.beta3 for my phd thesis (no imminent deadline). GM