Ed Baskerville <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Hi all, > > I've just started work on a simple LilyPond previewer for OS X. It > will be similar to TeXShop, but simpler--at the expense, perhaps, of > flexibility. The application will be a simple LilyPond text editor > with indent balancing, parenthesis balancing, and code completion and > "almost live" PDF previewing--a straightforward, one-trick pony. > > I was mostly silent about this because I hadn't actually written any > code until Thursday. Now that I have some basic functionality, I > thought I'd gauge interest. I'll try to have a test version available > soon, probably without syntax coloring or code completion. > > A few questions for you all: > > (1) Would use use this application? (Feel free to just email me > directly.) > (2) Any other key features you'd like to see? > (3) Echoing Han-Wen's inquiry about a binary distribution: what would > be a reasonable price? > > --Ed
I've been writing few mails to Richard Koch, the author of TeXShop, who kindly prepared a test version of TeXShop with simple LilyPond support: when you edit a .ly file, the LilyPond engine (backend) is selected, and pressing the "Compose" button launches lilypond and then the PDF viewer. Here are the issues with TeXShop: - the syntax coloring is hard coded, and devoted to LaTeX. - the log message window shows the output of the compilation, but has no support for clicking on error lines (just a "goto error" which works well for TeX, but not for LilyPond) - according to Richard, the point-on-click feature on the PDF output is not doable now, as Apple's pdf routines don't currently support hyperlinks. But this is not specific to TeXShop, and maybe I didn't understand the explanation properly. - the association between file types (.ly, .tex, etc) and engines is hard coded (however this is not complicated). Given these facts, one may think preferable to start a new project, or try to send patches, or use JEdit. To answer your questions: I would not use it, because I'm an Emacs guy. However, the feature that I think should be present in a decent LilyPond capable editor are (in random order): - sytax coloring - keyword completion - help accessible from an input file: when the cursor is on a keyword or a property name, a key chord opens the documentation where the keyword/property/etc is defined. - compilation with a key chord - easy navigation from the compilation window to the input file (when errors or warning are encountered). And maybe a little visual sign showing which lines have errors or warnings. - point and click from the PDF output to the input file - I don't want to bother what file is selected when a compilation is launched: there must be a way to easily specify which file is the main file (such as a little file list window, with a flag than can be set behind the main file). - template insertion - input from a MIDI keyboard - ... - the lilypond version to use might be settable (in order to switch between stable and unstable for instance) - guile REPL for debugging :) I also happen to like features like transposition on region on notes, and things like that. and specifically on Mac OS X: - native look and feel. Nicolas _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
