Re: How do new users feel about LilyPond's documentation?

[Zoran Kesic]

Abraham Lee <tisimst.lilypond <at> gmail.com> writes:

> 
> All,
> I've been thinking about this a lot lately, even going so far as to create
my own "Quick Start" tutorials for new users, but I can only go so far in my
own head. I really have two questions that I keep wondering about:
> 
> What is the thing you (especially new users) like the least about
LilyPond's documentation structure?
> If you could have the same documentation structure as found in another
notation program, which program is it? Or put another way: Is there a
notation program out there that has a documentation structure you like?
> 
> 
> I'm asking this because I'm trying to determine how we in the 'Pond can
make it easier for new users to jump in with both feet instead of dipping a
toe and getting scared of the deep.
> 
> 
> I may be over-thinking this, but I keep getting the feeling that people
are scared of using LilyPond partially because the documentation, though
deep and detailed, is a little too deep and technical for new users who are
familiar with a GUI program and less familiar with programming.
> 
> Any thoughts? I think I'm mostly interested in comments related to the
*Learning* and *Notation* manuals, but comments about the others are
welcome, too.
> 
> I can't say that I'm proposing any massive changes to the documentation,
but I'd like to know if there's something else that would be more new
user-friendly.
> 
> - Abraham
> 
> 
> 
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> 

I've been using Lilypond for the last year or two, and in general I find the
documentation really good and helpful. I guess, having some programming
experience does help me as well.

My suggestions for improvements would be:  

1. Documentation search - sometimes things are easy to find, sometimes not.
Not sure how could it be improved... (Note: I've just read a post about
using a 'find' on the index page; thank you Paul; will give it go).
2. Some blocks of code and snippets are repeated on different web pages,
which makes the documentation a bit inefficient, imho. Maybe some keywords
management would make things easier (e.g. use of tags). This approach might
also improve the searching aspect.
3. More, more, more templates (specially more complex ones), with good
comments/explanations (as already suggested by the others).

My two cents,
Cheers,
Zoran