2 CALL FOR HACKERS: LilyPond, the Music Typesetter
4 [Sorry if this is a bit off-topic; I want to announce this software to
5 small crowd, because it is still test-stage]
9 this is to announce the availability of the first public release
10 (v0.1) of my music typesetter.
14 Technically it is a preprocessor which generates TeX
15 (or LaTeX) output which contains information to typeset a musical
16 score. Practically it is a typesetter, which only uses TeX as an
17 output medium. (this is handy because there exist music fonts for TeX)
21 The input is a script file (example appended) which is read. The
22 script file is a "music definition", ie, you type the melody as if it
25 LilyPond interprets this melody and generates appropriate output items
26 (balls, stems, beams), and calculates where they should be put. Then
27 it outputs a TeX file. Warning: this said calculations is *slow* (a full
28 page of music typically takes 1 minute on my 486/66)
30 WHY IS THIS A TEST VERSION
32 There a lot of advanced features (grace notes, piano staffs) which are
33 VapourFeatures (tm). We're not sure about the language. It may change;
34 having a large user base is a burden then.
36 WHY A CALL FOR HACKERS
38 Currently, the development has three people. I'd this project to have
39 more people working on it (there is a lot of work to be done) I think
40 this program is pretty original, so join in if you anything about
43 As an aside, I really like the anarchist approach of linux development.
47 LilyPond is written in Gnu C++, and it is (imo) written very cleanly
48 (Lots of classes, lots of comments, small files/small functions) and
49 with extensions in mind.
51 - Coding. For this time, there won't any biggish (global)
52 source hackings. There are a lot of small projects which could use
55 - Some TeX hacking. I know little about TeX
57 - Documentation. I don't have time for this
61 You can download it at:
63 ftp://pcnov095.win.tue.nl/pub/lilypond
65 or visit the incredibly lousy webpage at:
67 http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html
72 % twinkle twinkle little star
75 c c | g g | a a | g g |
76 f f | e e | d d8.( e16 | )c2 |
78 g g | f f | e e | d d |
79 g g | f f | e( e8. f16 | e )d |
81 c c | g g | a a | g g |
82 f f | e e | d d8.( e16 | )c2
89 When the bla- zing sun is gone,2
90 When he no- thing shines up- on,2
91 Then you show your lit- tle light,2
92 Twin- kle, twin- kle, all the night.2
93 Twin- kle, twin- kle, lit- tle star,2
94 How I won- der what you are!2
98 english_staf = staff {
104 staff { melodic music { melody } }
105 staff { english_staf }