Re: GUI

[Graham Percival]

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 12:04:05PM +0100, Mats Bengtsson wrote:
> Quoting Graham Percival <address@hidden>:
>
>> Thanks, I missed that!  I'll add this to my TODO.
>
> I hope you also know that you end up at the 2.13 manual if you click on  
> the quick link to the "Manuals 2.12.2" on the main page.

Yes; fixing the general arrangement of doc links is still waiting
for me to do some experiments on how apache handles directories.
It would help if somebody had replied to my last email in the
"anybody know apache" thread a month ago, but oh well.


> A couple of comments on the text at  
> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.13/Documentation/web/text-input#Text-input:
>
> You never mention that you need a text editor.

Well, the windows and OSX lilyponds come with their own text
editor.  I admit that I'm just assuming that linux users will be
able to draw the inference that they need a text editor, which is
no longer a safe assumption.

Note that the actual "using lilypond" stuff comes in Learning 1.1,
now complete with beautiful screenshots from James Lowe.
(the windows ones aren't in the 2.13.9 docs, but they're in git)

> First sentence: Is it really accurate to say "containing the notes"? How 
> about "describing the music" or "containing the music"?

Good catch!  I went with "describing".

> In the Orchestral parts example: Is it obvious what is meant by  
> "multi-rest"? Would it take too much space to write out something like  
> "rest spanning several measures"?

Thanks, done.

> In the text above the same example: "To share the notes" makes me think  
> about "sharing music to others". Also, "variable" doesn't mean anything  
> relevant if you don't have a programming background. Why not write "To  
> be able to include the same music both in the score and the individual  
> parts, the music is assigned to a so-called variable".

Thank, done.  I think this paragraph is now a bit too wordy, but
that can be improved in later versions.

> Under "Beginner documentation", why not write out "beginning with the  
> Learning manual".

Because texinfo has this stupid "you can't use a @ref{} in the
middle of a sentence" thing, and the website reference is
@node Learning

(actually, it's not _stupid_; looking at the info and pdf docs
clearly shows why they suggest this)

Hmm.  I can't immediately see any way to improve this.  (and no,
I'm not going to start adding @ifhtml everywhere)

> The right-hand column of  
> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.13/Documentation/web/unix#Unix seems like a  
> maintenance nightmare to me. Who tracks all these distributions and  
> makes sure that the information is updated when these packages are  
> updated?

Nobody.  :(

I really, really wanted to get rid of it a few months ago, but Jan
and a few other people complained.  With a view to "pick your
battles", I gave in and put it back into the website.


The best I can suggest is that we update it whenever somebody
complains that it's out of date.  Or maybe as the Bug Meisters to
update the list every 6 months?  They're not great options, but
they're the only ones I can see.

Adding a python script to automatically check the links and update
the list is *not* an option.  At least, making this part of the
build system is not an option; if somebody makes a script that
just suggests replacements, that would be ok.

> Finally, when seeing the title "Community" at the top of the pages, I  
> cannot help thinking about 1968 and flower power. Do I really dare push  
> a button that says "community" without risking to get involved in some  
> weird sect? ;-)

:)

I very, very deliberately put all the contact info and development
stuff in there.  I really want people to realize that when they're
asking a question, they're asking a question to a community of
users (or developers), not just sending a tech support request to
a faceless employee of a large company.

Cheers,
- Graham