Re: is Lilypond difficult? A composer's point of view

[Mats Bengtsson]

Mehmet Okonsar wrote:
> I'm a 12 year Finale user and I also wrote some 500 pages of music with
> Sibelius and
> I also know somewhat Igor Engraver and Geniesoft's Overture..
>
> I must say, Lilypond is the winner!
> Incidentally Lily is the name of my wife:)
>
> I had some serious concerns at the beginning. First of all it seems awkward
> to write text files without seeing the "music paper" and many fellow
> friends composers feel the same. However, only a small practice proved it to
> be a false concern. As a composer ( not a copyist neither a programmer) I
> can say that typesetting music in a text environment is far better in many
> points to actually looking at the music paper.
>
> I think Lilypond is easier than Finale. One thing I'm still not very
> comfortable with is: I feel like a gap between the manual and the program
> reference. The reference is great but written in a style somewhat foreign to
> me. The journey for a newcomer which starts at manual's first page is not
> without "blackholes". Things that only get clear many many practice weeks
> later..

Feel free to point to specific issues that you think can be improved or,
even better, write some suggestions to be cut into the manual.

> Also more advanced editor support may be one of the needs. Here is the way
> which really made me start: I use WinEdt and I made some 200+ macros which
> are simply auto-texts to save you a trip to the manual and many probable
> syntax errors.. The point is whenever I want to set a 2d and a 3rd. voice I
> just have to click a menu item and fill the notes.

Did you try jedit? It's probably the editor that provides the best
support for LilyPond, including an automatic template setup feature
and it's available for Windows.

   /Mats