Re: Do we really offer the future?

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi Gilles (et al.),

> we are all aware of the limited resources, and I doubt that
> focusing on how to please established editing houses will lead us
> closer to the principles and goals of free software.

Now *that* I totally agree with. And perhaps this discussion will always split 
along the line separating those whose primary goal is the advancement of FLOSS 
and those whose primary goal is the advancement of beautiful music engraving.

> The point is that _they_ don't understand, and that bright people
> here will (probably) waste their time trying to figure out their
> business case for them.

That’s a fair point. But their business case is, at least for me personally, 
partly my business case, whereas FLOSS’s “business case” isn’t.

> Even worse is giving the priority to non-users!

Some say that Microsoft obtained its original OS dominance (which at one point 
was approaching 95%) specifically by giving the priority to non-users: it 
wilfully allowed (or even secretly supported) the proliferation of pirated 
copies of early Windows versions, in order to take the beachhead. Whether or 
not they properly managed that dominance in the following decades is a 
different debate.

Lilypond could only dream of having such a market-share dominance to squander 
in the music engraving world.

> Publishers would be expected to give back if (when) they benefit
> financially from using LilyPond.

I wouldn’t expect that at all. (Again, this discussion might always split along 
that fundamental line.)

> If one goal of LilyPond was to immediately grab all users of the existing 
> alternatives,
> it should have renounced to implement its way of inputting contents…

That doesn’t logically follow.

Imagine the following three-step scenario, none of which is gargantuan:
1. We perfect the translation of ANY musical source (Finale, Sibelius, 
OpusModus, Igor Engraver, MIDI, or whatever) into a form that Lilypond handles 
natively.
2. We perfect the stylesheet and grid system that Urs and I (and others) are 
currently working on.
3. We perfect the editionEngraver that Jan-Peter created (and Urs and I and 
others are working on).

Now you’re in a situation where someone can *INPUT* contents any way they want, 
using any application/tool they’re comfortable with, but Lilypond does the 
engraving work with super-easy tools for maintaining and manipulating (read: 
further beautifying) the final output. We didn’t renounce anything about the 
way Lilypond inputs contents — only opened the doors for Lilypond to “play well 
with others”.

> With the difference came incomprehension
> of most people who are generally averse to change, whatever the number of
> rational arguments you can throw at them.

Which is exactly why (as I’ve been implying) we should through emotional 
arguments at them: “Look how beautiful!”, “Look how easy!”, “Look how 
all-inclusive!”, “Look how cheap!”. The problem is that few people here seem 
interested in making those emotional arguments actually true.

> I meant the _idea_ of "Mutopia": a repository of free sheet music

Well, the _idea_ of FLOSS is wonderful, too… but currently it fails most 
use-cases just as spectacularly as Mutopia fails its use-case.

> Can it be blamed on LilyPond's shortcomings?

No. But it can be blamed in part on FLOSS’s shortcomings.

> I'd rather use resources for that project.

As someone else said, nobody’s stopping you!  =)
I agree that a truly impressive Mutopia would be nothing but a good thing for 
both FLOSS and Lilypond…
I just feel the cost/benefit equation currently (and massively) favours a route 
like the one Urs is investigating.

> we'll continue in the same system where musicians
> continue to pay for works long gone out of copyright.

You’ll get no argument from me on the topic of the current copyright and 
intellectual property system(s) — they suck.
But the way to fix that is legislative, not pricking at Goliath’s heel with a 
Lilypond needle.

Best regards,
Kieren.
________________________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: address@hidden