On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 09:11:40AM +0100, Jan Nieuwenhuizen wrote: > So what are the actual problems? Is LilyPond really too difficult? > Do we rely too much on crufty input-language solutions? How many > ritardando-like hacks do we have for common problems? Are they > listed/categorised somewhere?
For the record, **I have never recommended that somebody use lilypond**. When meeting a technically-oriented composer, especially one working on algorithmic music, I might suggest that they should check it out. But I think the original poster was entirely justified in switching back to Finale. That's why I cringe a bit whenever I hear people proudly announcing that they advertized lilypond to meeting X or conference Y. The worst two problems, and their solutions: - input syntax standardization, which I've been planning for over a year. - approximately 300 *known* bugs that produce garbage output that nobody's working on. (there's about 10-15 bugs that people are working on) There's no point listing more problems unless those (especially the second) are addressed. > Maybe it's just that we are not tempting enough to be used. The new website is better than the old one; I don't think we need any more advocacy than that. > I cannot imagine that OP would have stopped with a frustating > message to sibelius-user after having paid $$$$ for the program? Oh, people do that all the time. > How about a frogs project to make our image sexier? How about a project to finish the website? Oh wait, Kieren is trying to work on that. How about a project to make it easier to build lilypond docs? Oh wait, I'm kind-of doing that with waf. If we stay with waf. How about a project to make it easier to build lilypond, period? Chicken and egg problem: we don't have enough contributors on windows+osx to make it worth the effort to make it easier, and we __might__ not get some contributors on those platforms because they can't build it[1]. [1] I doubt this, though. It's just a convenient excuse. How about a project to gather more developers? Oh wait, that's GOP, which I've been trying to organize for slightly less than a year. We currently don't have the infrastructure for an influx of inexperienced developers. The snag right now: Carl has made the easy-git-gui tcl script, but nobody's testing it. Our problems are numerous, known, and mostly involve a lot of work. If we have double the amount of developer-effort, then we would _start_ to make a dent in the list (instead of piling up jobs). We really could use 5-10 times the amount of developer-effort if we're serious about it. Cheers, - Graham _______________________________________________ lilypond-devel mailing list lilypond-devel@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-devel
