Hello Jean, I think I have made quite a bit of progress in the great forest of my ignorance. I took your advice first and installed Macport (https://www.macports.org/install.php) and invoked "sudo port install frescobaldi". Installation stopped when asked to install Xcode. It took me trying to figure out what Xcode was for and finding the huge "Xcode_11.3.1.xip" file and installing it. "sudo port install frescobaldi" again and there, everything goes well except that a message indicates that "MacOSX10.14.sdk" is missing but does not cancel the installation which goes to the end without problem. I find and install "MacOSX10.14.sdk". and I find in the Macports folder the Frescobaldi 3.2 file which I launch immediately.
There, I check that the new 3.2 features are present and after noticing that the help balloons and \pointAndClickOff /On did not work, I check the convert-ly and import xml2.ly functions. I note that these two functions do not go beyond Lilypond 2.20.0. I spend a lot of time (trying to figure it out) trying all sorts of preference settings and other tinkering before I find that just clicking the Frescobaldi icon in the Mac's dock a second time and Lilypond 2.23.11 appears in convert.ly and in xml2.ly. Help balloons and pointAndClick too. I have a question about the installation. Could this erratic behavior be a result of this .sdk file being installed in the wrong order? is it possible to uninstall Frescobaldi using some magic formula like "sudo port uninstall frescobaldi" and do an install again so that the installer finds the sdk file. Especially will there be a difference. Just an idea... In any case, thank you Jean for the helping hand (effective as usual) which will have especially helped me to help myself. ;•) J.L.
