Insert programming code in a Lyx document

Question

What is the best way of inserting python/C++ code in a Lyx document? The code is small examples less than 20 lines.

My Lyx document is using the Book document class.

Orjanp

Answer 1

I prefer to insert the listings as a child document, so the code is grabbed directly from a file that you can further edit and keep updated (you avoid to duplicate an information and maintenance is a lot easier). To do this in Lyx:
Insert->File->Child document
Then in the window that will appear change the type to program listing and configure it as you need, for example you could want to enter the parameter language=Python (you can type a ? to view all the parameters).
A set of parameters I usually use is:

breaklines=true //--> breaks lines to margin captionpos=b  //--> caption at the bottom of the listing (default is "t") frame=tb  //--> frame at the top and at the bottom of the listing language=Python  //--> syntax highlighting for python 

Answer 2

There should be an Insert -> Program Listing option. That uses listings Latex package, so you should have that installed. The support seems to have been added in Lyx 1.5, and from their screenshot, it seems it gives you a lot of customization options.