Simple instructions for installing Lilypond

[David Sumbler]

It's a while since I used Lilypond.  I have a bit of tweaking I want to do to some scores, so thought I should download the latest version.  In the end, I decided to use v2.24.1, rather than 2.25.4, although I have mostly used the "unstable" versions in the past.

Lilypond used to use a global install, and it was the work of a few minutes to download and install this on my Linux machines, including all the documentation too if one added the -d flag.

I have managed to install Lilypond, and even the docs, a couple of times since it changed to a sort of flatpack design.  Each time it has taken me a long time to get it all working.  Today I have spent well over an hour messing about, and I have now managed to get lilypond installed and also the documentation.

But convert-ly doesn't work: I get a "/home/david/lilypond/usr/bin/python3: not found" error.  This is probably because the convert-ly script I have in my ~/bin/  folder  needs amending, but I can see myself having to spend another hour or two trying to sort out what is going wrong and how to change it.

What seems to be missing is a simple to find and to follow set of instructions on how to install Lilypond.  I was surprised to see that the Learning Manual now encourages users to use a package from their distro.  This seems to be a change of policy: previously, the website discouraged users from doing this, because the repositories usually have out of date versions.  But perhaps this is the path I should go down, simply to save time.

Sorry, this is just a grumble about having to mess about so much to get Lilypond functioning.  But surely there ought to be some sort of instructions on the download site about how to get everything installed and working.

David