This is the toplevel README to LilyPond
***************************************

   LilyPond is a music typesetter.  It produces beautiful sheet music
using a high level description file as input.  LilyPond is part of the
GNU Project.

Versioning
==========

   LilyPond uses a versioning scheme similar to the Linux kernel.  In a
version "x.y.z", an even second number 'y' denotes a stable version.
For development versions 'y' is odd.  So, in theory, version 1.2 is
stable, which means that there are no glaring errors in it. In practice
1.2.x is also unmaintained.

   1.3.x is in healthy development: lots of problems turn up, but
they're fixed quickly. Therefore we recommend you try 1.2.x, if you
have any problem with it, upgrade to the latest 1.3.x release.

Requirements
============

   For the compilation and running of LilyPond you need some additional
packages.  Please refer to the installation instructions.

   NOTE: If you downloaded a binary (.rpm or a W95/NT .zip file), you
don't have to compile LilyPond.

Installation
============

   For your convenience, a formatted copy of the INSTALL instructions
are in the toplevel directory, as INSTALL.txt

Documentation
=============

   The real documentation is the directory Documentation/

   If you want to read the documentation online, these are options:
   * use HTML. Refer to INSTALL.txt for information on how to make the
     HTML documentation.

   * use HTML. Point your browser to
     `http://www.cs.uu.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html'.

   * use `.dvi',  for the tutorial and reference manual. Do

            make -C Documentation/user/ dvi

     You need a working LilyPond binary to create the DVI and HTML
     sources.

   * use ASCII. Do using
          	make doc


Comments
========

   LilyPond is a long way from finished and polished.  We do appreciate
criticism, comments, bugreports, patches, etc., but please,

     	   Please send your e-mail to one of the MAILING LISTS

   and _not_ to us personally. We have the following mailing lists:

   * info-gnu-music@gnu.org
     (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu-music) is a
     low-volume list for information on the GNU Music project.
     This list is moderated; ask     David R. Linn <drl@gnu.org> or
     Han-Wen <hanwen@cs.uu.nl> to send announcements for this list.

   * help-gnu-music@gnu.org
     (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-music)     For help
     with using LilyPond.

   * bug-gnu-music@gnu.org
     (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-gnu-music) If you have
     bugreports, you should send them to this list.

Windows 32
==========

   If you have received this file as part of a DOS/Window32 distribution
(`LilyPond-*.zip'), it is advisable to also download the source
package, since it might contain more documentation
`ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/'

   If you decide to build LilyPond from source, please read the
INSTALL.txt document first, especially the Windows NT/95 section.

Caveats
=======

   If you have installed a previous version, be sure to remove old font
files, eg.,
     rm `find /var/lib/texmf/fonts -name 'feta*'`

   a script to do this for you is in `buildscripts/clean-fonts.sh'

Bugs
====

   Send bug reports to <bug-gnu-music@gnu.org>.  For help and questions
use <help-gnu-music@gnu.org> and <gnu-music-discuss@gnu.org>.  Please
consult the FAQ and installation instructions before mailing your
problems.