Re: Supporting my work on LilyPond financially

[Kieren MacMillan]

> I think it hasn't been stressed enough yet that the text input by itself is a 
> huge hurdle. I mean, not the syntax but the plain fact.

Amen.

> If you're looking at a real-world score's input file it's overwhelmingly 
> daunting.

…even for me, and I’m one of Lily’s biggest users in terms of number and size 
and “real-ness” of scores.

Here’s my experience:
1. I've tried to convince at least a dozen people — all of whom are of high 
intelligence (though none “programmers”) — to try Lilypond.
2. Every single one has preferred (or at least claimed to prefer) Lilypond's 
output to that of the engraving software they use — most are on Sibelius; a few 
use Finale.
3. About half took the time to install Lilypond and compile a simple example 
file.
4. To my knowledge, exactly one tried a second example.

Result? Not a single successful convert to date.

> Most people I tried to persuade simply said "this isn't my cup of tea, I'm 
> not a programmer”.

THAT is the main problem right there — one we are likely never to overcome, as 
much as I hate to admit it.

Cheers,
Kieren.