Re: Help getting started

[Han-Wen Nienhuys]

address@hidden writes:
> >>place the commands.  I've tried searching the lilypond wiki 
> >>site, but the searches returns mostly hits on how to setup 
> >>the wiki.
> > 
> > 
> > You hit a weak point here. Your criticism is a little over the
> > target though. Some Lilypond writers think it is very nice that a
> > lot of things defaults to sane values. So if you do not think that
> > it should be so you could write notes with rosegarden or noteedit
> > and think about what problems these two programs run into.
> > 
> 
> It was not meant to be harsh criticism.  I was only trying 
> to point out the extent to which I've searched for answers.
> 
> > The wiki is still really young. Most people working with Lily or
> > programming to the Lilypond project also have other things in
> > their lives, be it jobs or families, and after hours trying to get
> > the right lilypond output they tend to take up other tasks:-)
> > 
> >
> Again, I did not blame the coders.  They are doing wonderful 
> work.  I wanted to point out that there is a need for 
> documentation.  I am willing to help with this, although at 
> this point I would have very little to contribute.

I think that the attitude you exhibit in the last sentence also does
not help improve the documentation, and with that attitude ("I'm don't
know enough to be of help"), we will never have better documentation.

(Not trying to be harsh, just an observation).

The discussion about lacking quality of the user-manual is a recurring
theme. The last time, it gave rise to the wiki, whose popularity has
been rather disappointing IMO.

The only way to improve the manual, is to _do_ something. You might
not know enough to easily give all the answers, but you do know all
about the stumbling blocks, which would make you perfect for posing
all the questions. If you're willing, you could work on a list of
questions/unclear points.

The idea to document the structure of a ly file is a good
one. Unfortunately, it's exactly the thing which is in the biggest
flux right now in 2.3. Nevertheless, you can find a formal definition
of the syntax in the source code, lily/parser.yy.


--
 Han-Wen Nienhuys   |   address@hidden   |   http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen