Bruce:
Older scores that have been carefully tuned, compensating for
earlier bugs
With all due respect, this implies something about Lilypond that
simply isn't true.
"Carefully tuned" is one thing. My scores are also carefully tuned;
from your work I've seen so far, I dare say I'm far more obsessive-
compulsive than you in my engraving standards. Nothing personal, mind
you: I'm the most OC engraver I've ever met! ;-)
That being said, I spent over an hour cleaning up your "bug-
compensating code" yesterday, as an instructional example. What you
were (are) doing -- e.g., adding title information directly to
skipped notes in a \partial bar before the music actually begins, and
then filling the \markup code with offset and spacing tweaks to move
it back where it really belongs (i.e., in the header and not attached
to the music) -- does not "[compensate] for earlier bugs". It's poor
coding, plain and simple.
Are there bugs in older (and current) versions of Lilypond?
Absolutely. Will many be fixed in upcoming versions? I sure hope so.
Ironically, the way that the header block acts as a music system is
one of the things I hope changes in a future version... but the fact
that my titles are all *in* headers already (instead of counter-
intuitively attached to invisible notes between the key signature and
the first visible note of my score) will make the migration very easy
for me, if and when it happens.
Based on the example of your work I helped you with, my conservative
estimate is that 90% of your migration woes would disappear if you
just wrote proper Lilypond code. I think it's quite telling that,
like most on this list, I've had essentially no problems moving
forward with Lilypond as it evolves and improves (n.b., I started
with v1.8), and you apparently have had nothing but headaches.
Ultimately, I would feel it a great loss if HW et al. decided to
allow Lilypond to become bloatware in some vain quest for the
Backwards Compatibility Grail.
Fortunately, I know they're too smart to do that. =)
Regards,
Kieren.
p.s. When Microsoft ruined Word for Mac v5.1 by "improving it" (v6.0
and beyond), I didn't upgrade -- perhaps you might consider taking
the same approach with Lilypond?
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