My own wishlist...

[darius]

Cheers,

Not much really... I think that Lilypond is a wonderful tool, not only because
it produces beautiful scores, but even more importantly, because it allows
one to describe music analytically, as a set of user-defined musical
constructs (themes, fragments, etc..) rather than just a set of notation
artefacts.

I've used Lilypond to produce over 100 pages of music, and while I would 
not consider myself an expert (there are large areas of Lilypond I have
not worked with), I feel comfortable and productive using it.

However, I sometimes need the ability to define such a fragment with
parameters. I need conditionals to decide whether a set of grobs should
be produced (Admittedly, this can be achieved with tags...) I would need
the ability to define a fragment where a part (a note, an anotation, etc)
is to be given as parameter. 

I've solved a number of problems using the M4 preprocessor, but this
approach is limited in scope, as the preprocessor has no understanding
of the constructs it is dealing with.

I had a careful look at GUILE and how it interacts with Lilypond.
What I need could be written as scheme functions, but the notation
would be kind of cumbersome. Besides, it would require an intimate
understanding of Lilypond's underlying data representation, and this 
does scare me a bit...

Since Lilypond variables are just a notational shorthand for scheme
"let" constructs, wouldn'it be possible to have Lilypond functions
translate seamlessly to scheme functions ? Or is this totally 
unreasonable ? Alternatively, is there another way than plain 
scheme to achieve what I need ? For instance, is there a way of
using plain Lilypond syntax in Scheme to build music expressions on
the fly ?

In any case, I'd like to say that Lilypond is an amazing product, and
its support shines when compared to most commercial products I've heard
of.

Darius.

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