Re: A thought on Windows Experience (was: useability, promoting, etc)

[SoundsFromSound]

pkx166h wrote
> On 04/12/13 17:24, Francisco Vila wrote:
>> Warning. I this message, "Why don't we" does not mean "do it, you
>> slave". It means just asking "do you think it's a worthwhile idea?"
>>
>> The thread about usability and promoting has forked too much and my
>> thoughts are somewhat related to both. I am crossposting to hear users
>> feedback also, sorry for that.
>>
>> I keep seeing newcomers double-clicking the LilyPond icon on the
>> desktop despite of our warnings about not to do that. LaTeX is also
>> just a typesetting engine and people do not try to work with it by
>> first clicking on a desktop icon, do they? I don't really know what's
>> the Windows LaTeX experience like, but I can assume the user base of
>> LaTeX is far greater than LilyPond's, and newcomers have always an
>> experienced user in the nearby ready to help. That's the "critical
>> mass" effect that Finale and Sibelius already have and we don't.
>>
>> Despite of having a README just in front of your eyes, IMO we should
>> expect people will always try to "open lilypond" to work in a typical
>> program window. Why don't we just give them what they want? That is: a
>> program you open. All programs are "opened" and it doesn't matter how
>> hard we try, most people want to open the program. We could make the
>> lilypond icon to launch a shell applet to open ly projects and a
>> button to compile. Of course, a console output window and a PDF
>> pre-viewer are necessary. I see the drag-drop ritual in the tutorial
>> too few standard, too weird and too much lilypond-specific. That
>> scares newcomers.
>>
>> But wait: this has been done. Valentin Villenave dit it once. A bundle
>> that installed a PDF viewer and a small button panel with all the most
>> basic operatons. I don't remember if it included a message output.
>>
>> But wait again: Frescobaldi already does this. It is super-easy to
>> install on windows and it has got all the necessary items: an editor,
>> a pre-viewer and a message output panel. Of course it has many, many
>> more features, but even so it is lightweight (unlike the now almost
>> defunct jEdit/lilypondtool). Why don't we do a cut-down
>> Frescobaldi-like shell for the absolute beginner? The File->Open...
>> menu entry must include a sub-menu with a lot of ready_to_compile
>> fancy or real-world examples.
>>
>> Yes, we already promote easier environments, but in my opinion the
>> bare minimum we offer is too weak as to be useful for all except
>> mid-high level nerdies.
>>
>> I always think all you do to lower the entry threshold is never enough
>> and ours is currently a bit too high. It's not the language, it's the
>> experience. And never forget Windows users are potentially way more
>> numerous than command line users.
> Like this : http://lilypond.org/macos-x.html
> 
> Are you just asking for a 'Lilypad' but for Windows?
> 
> James
> 
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I'm confused. There is a Lilypad for Windows. It comes standard w/ the
LilyPond installation. ?



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