1 @c -*- coding: utf-8; mode: texinfo; -*-
2 @node Documentation work
3 @chapter Documentation work
5 There are currently 11 manuals for LilyPond, not including the
6 translations. Each book is available in HTML, PDF, and info. The
7 documentation is written in a language called @code{texinfo} --
8 this allows us to generate different output formats from a single
11 To organize multiple authors working on the documentation, we use a
12 Version Control System (VCS) called git, previously discussed in
13 @ref{Starting with Git}.
16 * Introduction to documentation work::
17 * Documentation suggestions::
18 * Texinfo introduction and usage policy::
19 * Documentation policy::
20 * Tips for writing docs::
21 * Scripts to ease doc work::
22 * Docstrings in scheme::
23 * Translating the documentation::
27 @node Introduction to documentation work
28 @section Introduction to documentation work
30 Our documentation tries to adhere to our @ref{Documentation
31 policy}. This policy contains a few items which may seem odd.
32 One policy in particular is often questioned by potential
33 contributors: we do not repeat material in the Notation Reference,
34 and instead provide links to the @qq{definitive} presentation of
35 that information. Some people point out, with good reason, that
36 this makes the documentation harder to read. If we repeated
37 certain information in relevant places, readers would be less
38 likely to miss that information.
40 That reasoning is sound, but we have two counter-arguments.
41 First, the Notation Reference -- one of @emph{five} manuals for
42 users to read -- is already over 500 pages long. If we repeated
43 material, we could easily exceed 1000 pages! Second, and much
44 more importantly, LilyPond is an evolving project. New features
45 are added, bugs are fixed, and bugs are discovered and documented.
46 If features are discussed in multiple places, the documentation
47 team must find every instance. Since the manual is so large, it
48 is impossible for one person to have the location of every piece
49 of information memorized, so any attempt to update the
50 documentation will invariably omit a few places. This second
51 concern is not at all theoretical; the documentation used to be
52 plagued with inconsistent information.
54 If the documentation were targeted for a specific version -- say,
55 LilyPond 2.10.5 -- and we had unlimited resources to spend on
56 documentation, then we could avoid this second problem. But since
57 LilyPond evolves (and that is a very good thing!), and since we
58 have quite limited resources, this policy remains in place.
60 A few other policies (such as not permitting the use of tweaks in
61 the main portion of NR 1+2) may also seem counter-intuitive, but
62 they also stem from attempting to find the most effective use of
63 limited documentation help.
65 Before undertaking any large documentation work, contributors are
66 encouraged to contact the @ref{Meisters, Documentation Meister}.
69 @node Documentation suggestions
70 @section Documentation suggestions
72 @subheading Small additions
74 For additions to the documentation,
79 Tell us where the addition should be placed. Please include both
80 the section number and title (i.e. "LM 2.13 Printing lyrics").
83 Please write exact changes to the text.
86 A formal patch to the source code is @emph{not} required; we can
87 take care of the technical details. Here is an example of a
88 perfect documentation report:
91 To: lilypond-devel@gnu.org
92 From: helpful-user@example.net
95 In LM 2.13 (printing lyrics), above the last line ("More options,
96 like..."), please add:
99 To add lyrics to a divided part, use blah blah blah. For example,
102 \notes {blah <<blah>> }
103 \lyrics {blah <<blah>> }
108 In addition, the second sentence of the first paragraph is
109 confusing. Please delete that sentence (it begins "Users
110 often...") and replace it with this:
112 To align lyrics with something, do this thing.
122 @subheading Larger contributions
124 To replace large sections of the documentation, the guidelines are
125 stricter. We cannot remove parts of the current documentation
126 unless we are certain that the new version is an improvement.
131 Ask on the lilypond-devel maillist if such a rewrite is necessary;
132 somebody else might already be working on this issue!
135 Split your work into small sections; this makes it much easier to
136 compare the new and old documentation.
139 Please prepare a formal git patch.
143 Once you have followed these guidelines, please send a message to
144 lilypond-devel with your documentation submissions. Unfortunately
145 there is a strict “no top-posting” check on the mailist; to avoid
148 > I'm not top posting.
150 (you must include the > ) to the top of your documentation
153 We may edit your suggestion for spelling, grammar, or style, and
154 we may not place the material exactly where you suggested, but if
155 you give us some material to work with, we can improve the manual
156 much faster. Thanks for your interest!
159 @node Texinfo introduction and usage policy
160 @section Texinfo introduction and usage policy
163 * Texinfo introduction::
164 * Documentation files::
165 * Sectioning commands::
166 * LilyPond formatting::
169 * Other text concerns::
173 @node Texinfo introduction
174 @subsection Texinfo introduction
176 The language is called Texinfo; you can see its manual here:
178 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/}
180 However, you don't need to read those docs. The most important
181 thing to notice is that text is text. If you see a mistake in the
182 text, you can fix it. If you want to change the order of
183 something, you can cut-and-paste that stuff into a new location.
185 @warning{Rule of thumb: follow the examples in the existing docs.
186 You can learn most of what you need to know from this; if you want
187 to do anything fancy, discuss it on @code{lilypond-devel} first.}
190 @node Documentation files
191 @subsection Documentation files
193 All manuals live in @file{Documentation/}.
195 In particular, there are four user manuals, their respective master
196 source files are @file{learning@/.tely} (LM, Learning Manual),
197 @file{notation@/.tely} (NR, Notation Reference),
198 @file{music@/-glossary@/.tely} (MG, Music Glossary), and
199 @file{lilypond@/-program} (AU). Each chapter is written in a separate
200 file, ending in @file{.itely} for files containing lilypond code, and
201 @file{.itexi} for files without lilypond code, located in a subdirectory
202 associated to the manual (@file{learning/} for @file{learning@/.tely}, and
203 so on); list the subdirectory of each manual to determine the filename
204 of the specific chapter you wish to modify.
206 Developer manuals live in @file{Documentation/} too. Currently there is
207 only one: the Contributor's Guide @file{contrib@/-guide@/.texi} you are
210 Snippet files are part of documentation, and the Snippet List (SL) lives
211 in @file{Documentation/} just like the manuals. For information about
212 how to modify the snippet files and SL, see @ref{LSR work}.
215 @node Sectioning commands
216 @subsection Sectioning commands
218 Most of the manual operates at the
226 level. Sections are created with
235 Please leave two blank lines above a @code{@@node}; this makes it
236 easier to find sections in texinfo.
239 Do not use any @code{@@} commands for a @code{@@node}. They may be
240 used for any @code{@@sub...} sections or headings however.
244 @@node @@code@{Foo@} Bar
245 @@subsection @@code@{Foo@} Bar
249 @@subsection @@code@{Foo@} Bar
253 If a heading is desired without creating a @code{@@node}, please use
261 Sectioning commands (@code{@@node} and @code{@@section}) must not appear
262 inside an @code{@@ignore}. Separate those commands with a space, ie
263 @code{@@n}@tie{}@code{ode}.
267 Nodes must be included inside a
277 construct. These are easily constructed with automatic tools; see
278 @ref{Scripts to ease doc work}.
281 @node LilyPond formatting
282 @subsection LilyPond formatting
287 Use two spaces for indentation in lilypond examples (no tabs).
290 All engravers should have double-quotes around them:
293 \consists "Spans_arpeggio_engraver"
296 LilyPond does not strictly require this, but it is a useful
297 convention to follow.
300 All context or layout object strings should be prefaced with @code{#}.
301 Again, LilyPond does not strictly require this, but it is helpful
302 to get users accustomed to this scheme construct. i.e. @code{\set
303 Staff.instrumentName = #"cello"}
306 Try to avoid using @code{#'} or @code{#`} within when describing
307 context or layout properties outside of an @code{@@example} or @code{@@lilypond}, unless
308 the description explicitly requires it.
310 ie @qq{...setting the @code{transparent} property leaves the object where it
311 is, but makes it invisible.}
314 If possible, only write one bar per line.
317 If you only have one bar per line, omit bar checks. If you
318 must put more than one bar per line (not recommended), then include bar
322 Tweaks should, if possible, also occur on their own line.
324 not: \override TextScript #'padding = #3 c1^"hi"
325 but instead: \override TextScript #'padding = #3
330 Most LilyPond input should be produced with:
333 @@lilypond[verbatim,quote,relative=2]
340 @@lilypond[verbatim,quote,relative=1]
343 If you want to use @code{\layout@{@}} or define variables, use
346 @@lilypond[verbatim,quote]
349 In rare cases, other options may be used (or omitted), but ask first.
352 Inspirational headwords are produced with
355 @@lilypondfile[quote,ragged-right,line-width=16\cm,staffsize=16]
356 @{pitches-headword.ly@}
360 LSR snippets are linked with
363 @@lilypondfile[verbatim,lilyquote,ragged-right,texidoc,doctitle]
368 excepted in Templates, where `doctitle' may be omitted.
371 Avoid long stretches of input code. Nobody is going to read
372 them in print. Create small examples. However, this does not mean
376 Specify durations for at least the first note of every bar.
379 If possible, end with a complete bar.
382 Comments should go on their own line, and be placed before
383 the line(s) to which they refer.
386 For clarity, always use @{ @} marks even if they are not technically
392 \context Voice \repeat unfold 2 \relative c' @{
408 Add a space around @{ @} marks; ie
411 not: \chordmode@{c e g@}
412 but instead: \chordmode @{ c e g @}
416 Use @{ @} marks for additional @code{\markup} format comands; ie
419 not: c^\markup \tiny\sharp
420 but instead: c^\markup @{ \tiny \sharp @}
424 Remove any space around @code{<} @code{>} marks; ie
428 but instead: <c e g>4
432 Beam, slur and tie marks should begin immediately after the first
433 note with beam and phrase marks ending immediately after the last.
436 a8(\ ais16[ b cis( d] b) cis4~ b' cis,\)
440 If you want to work on an example outside of the manual (for
441 easier/faster processing), use this header:
446 line-width = 160\mm - 2.0 * 0.4\in
448 force-assignment = #""
449 line-width = #(- line-width (* mm 3.000000))
456 You may not change any of these values. If you are making an
457 example demonstrating special @code{\paper@{@}} values, contact the
458 Documentation Editor.
463 @node Text formatting
464 @subsection Text formatting
468 Lines should be less than 72 characters long. (We personally
469 recommend writing with 66-char lines, but do not bother modifying
470 existing material). Also see the recommendations for fixed-width
471 fonts in the @ref{Syntax survey}.
477 Do not use spaces at the beginning of a line (except in
478 @code{@@example} or @code{@@verbatim} environments), and do not
479 use more than a single space between words. @q{makeinfo} copies
480 the input lines verbatim without removing those spaces.
483 Use two spaces after a period.
486 In examples of syntax, use @code{@@var@{@var{musicexpr}@}} for a
490 Don't use @code{@@rinternals@{@}} in the main text. If you're
491 tempted to do so, you're probably getting too close to @qq{talking
492 through the code}. If you really want to refer to a context, use
493 @code{@@code@{@}} in the main text and @code{@@rinternals@{@}} in
494 the @code{@@seealso}.
499 @subsection Syntax survey
509 * Special characters::
515 @unnumberedsubsubsec Comments
519 @code{@@c @dots{}} --- single line comment. @samp{@@c NOTE:} is a
520 comment which should remain in the final version. (gp only
524 @code{@@ignore} --- multi-line comment:
534 @node Cross references
535 @unnumberedsubsubsec Cross references
537 Enter the exact @code{@@node} name of the target reference between
538 the brackets (eg.@tie{}@w{@samp{@@ref@{Syntax survey@}}}). Do not
539 split a cross-reference across two lines -- this causes the
540 cross-reference to be rendered incorrectly in html documents.
544 @code{@@ref@{@dots{}@}} --- link within current manual.
547 @code{@@rchanges@{@dots{}@}} --- link to Changes.
550 @code{@@rcontrib@{@dots{}@}} --- link to Contributor's Guide.
553 @code{@@ressay@{@dots{}@}} --- link to Engraving Essay.
556 @code{@@rextend@{@dots{}@}} --- link to Extending LilyPond.
559 @code{@@rglos@{@dots{}@}} --- link to the Music Glossary.
562 @code{@@rinternals@{@dots{}@}} --- link to the Internals Reference.
565 @code{@@rlearning@{@dots{}@}} --- link to Learning Manual.
568 @code{@@rlsr@{@dots{}@}} --- link to a Snippet section.
571 @code{@@rprogram@{@dots{}@}} --- link to Application Usage.
574 @code{@@ruser@{@dots{}@}} --- link to Notation Reference.
577 @code{@@rweb@{@dots{}@}} --- link to General Informaion.
582 @unnumberedsubsubsec External links
586 @code{@@email@{@dots{}@}} --- create a @code{mailto:} E-mail link.
589 @code{@@uref@{@var{URL}[, @var{link text}]@}} --- link to an
590 external url. Use within an @code{@@example ... @@end example}.
594 @@uref@{URL [, link text ]@}
600 @node Fixed-width font
601 @unnumberedsubsubsec Fixed-width font
605 @code{@@code@{@dots{}@}}, @code{@@samp@{@dots{}@}} ---
607 Use the @code{@@code@{@dots{}@}} command for individual
608 language-specific tokens (keywords, commands, engravers, scheme
609 symbols, etc.). Ideally, a single @code{@@code@{@dots{}@}} block
610 should fit within one line in the PDF output. Use the
611 @code{@@samp@{@dots{}@}} command when you have a short example of
612 user input, unless it constitutes an entire @code{@@item} by
613 itself, in which case @code{@@code@{@dots{}@}} is preferable.
614 Otherwise, both should only be used when part of a larger sentence
615 within a paragraph or @code{@@item}. Never use a
616 @code{@@code@{@dots{}@}} or @code{@@samp@{@dots{}@}} block as a
617 free-standing paragraph; use @code{@@example} instead.
619 A single unindented line in the PDF has space for about 79
620 fixed-width characters (76 if indented). Within an @code{@@item}
621 there is space for about 75 fixed-width characters. Each
622 additional level of @code{@@itemize} or @code{@@enumerate}
623 shortens the line by about 4 columns.
625 However, even short blocks of @code{@@code@{@dots{}@}} and
626 @code{@@samp@{@dots{}@}} can run into the margin if the Texinfo
627 line-breaking algorithm gets confused. Additionally, blocks that
628 are longer than this may in fact print nicely; it all depends
629 where the line breaks end up. If you compile the docs yourself,
630 check the PDF output to make sure the line breaks are
633 The Texinfo setting @code{@@allowcodebreaks} is set to
634 @code{false} in the manuals, so lines within
635 @code{@@code@{@dots{}@}} or @code{@@samp@{@dots{}@}} blocks will
636 only break at spaces, not at hyphens or underscores. If the block
637 contains spaces, use @code{@@w@{@@code@{@dots{}@}@}} or
638 @code{@@w@{@@samp@{@dots{}@}@}} to prevent unexpected line breaks.
640 The Texinfo settings @code{txicodequoteundirected} and
641 @code{txicodequotebacktick} are both set in the manuals, so
642 backticks (@code{`}) and apostrophes (@code{'}) placed within
643 blocks of @code{@@code}, @code{@@example}, or @code{@@verbatim}
644 are not converted to left- and right-angled quotes
645 (@code{@quoteleft{} @quoteright{}}) as they normally are within
646 the text, so the apostrophes in
647 @q{@w{@code{@@w@{@@code@{@bs{}relative c''@}@}}}} will display
648 correctly. However, these settings do not affect the PDF output
649 for anything within a @code{@@samp} block (even if it includes a
650 nested @code{@@code} block), so entering
651 @q{@code{@@w@{@@samp@{@bs{}relative c''@}@}}} wrongly produces
652 @q{@w{@code{@bs{}relative c@quoteright{}@quoteright{}}}} in PDF.
653 Consequently, if you want to use a @code{@@samp@{@dots{}@}} block
654 which contains backticks or apostrophes, you should instead use
655 @q{@code{@@q@{@@code@{@dots{}@}@}}} (or
656 @q{@code{@@q@{@@w@{@@code@{@dots{}@}@}@}}} if the block also
657 contains spaces). Note that backslashes within
658 @code{@@q@{@dots{}@}} blocks must be entered as @samp{@@bs@{@}},
659 so the example above would be coded as
660 @q{@code{@@q@{@@w@{@@code@{@@bs@{@}relative c''@}@}@}}}.
663 @code{@@command@{@dots{}@}} --- Use for command-line commands (eg.
664 @samp{@@command@{lilypond-book@}}).
667 @code{@@example} --- Use for examples of program code. Do not add
668 extraneous indentation (ie. don't start every line with
669 whitespace). Use the following layout (notice the use of blank
670 lines). Omit the @code{@@noindent} if the text following the
671 example starts a new paragraph:
674 @var{@dots{}text leading into the example@dots{}}
681 @var{continuation of the text@dots{}}
684 Individual lines within an @code{@@example} block should not
685 exceed 74 characters; otherwise they will run into the margin in
686 the PDF output, and may get clipped. If an @code{@@example} block
687 is part of an @code{@@item}, individual lines in the
688 @code{@@example} block should not exceed 70 columns. Each
689 additional level of @code{@@itemize} or @code{@@enumerate}
690 shortens the line by about 4 columns.
692 For long command line examples, if possible, use a trailing
693 backslash to break up a single line, indenting the next line with
694 2 spaces. If this isn't feasible, use @samp{@@smallexample
695 @dots{} @@end@tie{}smallexample} instead, which uses a smaller
696 fontsize. Use @code{@@example} whenever possible, but if needed,
697 @code{@@smallexample} can fit up to 90 characters per line before
698 running into the PDF margin. Each additional level of
699 @code{@@itemize} or @code{@@enumerate} shortens a
700 @code{@@smallexample} line by about 5 columns.
703 @code{@@file@{@dots{}@}} --- Use for filenames and directories.
706 @code{@@option@{@dots{}@}} --- Use for options to command-line
707 commands (eg. @samp{@@option@{--format@}}).
710 @code{@@verbatim} --- Prints the block exactly as it appears in
711 the source file (including whitespace, etc.). For program code
712 examples, use @code{@@example} instead. @code{@@verbatim} uses
713 the same format as @code{@@example}.
715 Individual lines within an @code{@@verbatim} block should not
716 exceed 74 characters; otherwise they will run into the margin in
717 the PDF output, and may get clipped. If an @code{@@verbatim}
718 block is part of an @code{@@item}, individual lines in the
719 @code{@@verbatim} block should not exceed 70 columns. Each
720 additional level of @code{@@itemize} or @code{@@enumerate}
721 shortens the line by about 4 columns.
726 @unnumberedsubsubsec Indexing
730 @code{@@cindex @dots{}} --- General index. Please add as many as you can.
731 Don't capitalize the first word.
734 @code{@@funindex @dots{}} --- is for a \lilycommand.
739 @unnumberedsubsubsec Lists
743 @code{@@enumerate} --- Create an ordered list (with numbers).
744 Always put @samp{@@item} on its own line, and separate consecutive
745 items with a blank line:
758 @code{@@itemize} --- Create an unordered list (with bullets). Use
759 the same format as @code{@@enumerate}. Do not use
760 @samp{@@itemize@tie{}@@bullet}.
764 @node Special characters
765 @unnumberedsubsubsec Special characters
769 @code{--}, @code{---} --- Create an en dash (--) or an em dash
770 (---) in the text. To print two or three literal hyphens in a
771 row, wrap one of them in a @code{@@w@{@dots{}@}} (eg.
775 @code{@@@@}, @code{@@@{}, @code{@@@}} --- Create an at-sign (@@),
776 a left curly bracket (@{), or a right curly bracket (@}).
779 @code{@@bs@{@}} --- Create a backslash within a
780 @code{@@q@{@dots{}@}}, @code{@@qq@{@dots{}@}}, or
781 @code{@@warning@{@dots{}@}} block. This is a custom LilyPond
782 macro, not a builtin @@-command in Texinfo. Texinfo would also
783 allow @samp{\\}, but this breaks the PDF output.
786 @code{@@tie@{@}} --- Create a @emph{variable-width} non-breaking
787 space in the text (use @w{@samp{@@w@{ @}}} for a single
788 @emph{fixed-width} non-breaking space). Variables or numbers
789 which consist of a single character (probably followed by a
790 punctuation mark) should be tied properly, either to the previous
791 or the next word. Example: @samp{The letter@@tie@{@}@@q@{I@} is
797 @unnumberedsubsubsec Miscellany
801 @code{@@notation@{@dots{}@}} --- refers to pieces of notation, e.g.
802 @samp{@@notation@{clef@}}. Also use for specific lyrics
803 (@samp{the @@notation@{A@tie{}-@tie{}men@} is centered}).
804 Only use once per subsection per term.
807 @code{@@q@{@dots{}@}} --- Single quotes. Used for
808 @quoteleft{}vague@quoteright{} terms. To get a backslash
809 (\), you must use @samp{@@bs@{@}}.
812 @code{@@qq@{@dots{}@}} --- Double quotes. Used for actual quotes
813 (@qq{he said}) or for introducing special input modes. To get a
814 backslash (\), you must use @samp{@@bs@{@}}.
817 @code{@@var@{@dots{}@}} --- Use for variables.
820 @code{@@version@{@}} --- Return the current LilyPond version
821 string. Use @samp{@@w@{@@version@{@}@}} if it's at the end of a
822 line (to prevent an ugly line break in PDF); use
823 @samp{@@w@{"@@version@{@}"@}} if you need it in quotes.
826 @code{@@w@{@dots{}@}} --- Do not allow any line breaks.
829 @code{@@warning@{@dots{}@}} --- produces a @qq{Note:@tie{}} box.
830 Use for important messages. To get a backslash (\), you must use
835 @node Other text concerns
836 @subsection Other text concerns
840 References must occur at the end of a sentence, for more
842 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/,texinfo
843 manual}. Ideally this should also be the final sentence of a
844 paragraph, but this is not required. Any link in a doc section
845 must be duplicated in the @code{@@seealso} section at the bottom.
848 Introducing examples must be done with
851 . (ie finish the previous sentence/paragaph)
852 : (ie `in this example:')
853 , (ie `may add foo with the blah construct,')
856 The old @qq{sentence runs directly into the example} method is not
860 Abbrevs in caps, e.g., HTML, DVI, MIDI, etc.
870 When beginning a quote: @qq{So, he said,...}.
872 This usage is rarer. Americans often just use a comma.
875 When adding a defining example at the end of a sentence.
879 Non-ASCII characters which are in utf-8 should be directly used;
880 this is, don't say @samp{Ba@@ss@{@}tuba} but @samp{Baßtuba}. This
881 ensures that all such characters appear in all output formats.
885 @node Documentation policy
886 @section Documentation policy
890 * Section organization::
891 * Checking cross-references::
893 * Technical writing style::
899 There are four parts to the documentation: the Learning Manual,
900 the Notation Reference, the Program Reference, and the Music
908 The LM is written in a tutorial style which introduces the most
909 important concepts, structure and syntax of the elements of a
910 LilyPond score in a carefully graded sequence of steps.
911 Explanations of all musical concepts used in the Manual can be
912 found in the Music Glossary, and readers are assumed to have no
913 prior knowledge of LilyPond. The objective is to take readers to
914 a level where the Notation Reference can be understood and
915 employed to both adapt the templates in the Appendix to their
916 needs and to begin to construct their own scores. Commonly used
917 tweaks are introduced and explained. Examples are provided
918 throughout which, while being focussed on the topic being
919 introduced, are long enough to seem real in order to retain the
920 readers' interest. Each example builds on the previous material,
921 and comments are used liberally. Every new aspect is thoroughly
922 explained before it is used.
924 Users are encouraged to read the complete Learning Manual from
929 Notation Reference: a (hopefully complete) description of LilyPond
930 input notation. Some material from here may be duplicated in the
931 Learning Manual (for teaching), but consider the NR to be the
932 "definitive" description of each notation element, with the LM
933 being an "extra". The goal is _not_ to provide a step-by-step
934 learning environment -- do not avoid using notation that has not
935 be introduced previously in the NR (for example, use \break if
936 appropriate). This section is written in formal technical writing
939 Avoid duplication. Although users are not expected to read this
940 manual from start to finish, they should be familiar with the
941 material in the Learning Manual (particularly ``Fundamental
942 Concepts''), so do not repeat that material in each section of
943 this book. Also watch out for common constructs, like ^ - _ for
944 directions -- those are explained in NR 3. In NR 1, you can
945 write: DYNAMICS may be manually placed above or below the staff,
946 see @@ref@{Controlling direction and placement@}.
948 Most tweaks should be added to LSR and not placed directly in the
949 .itely file. In some cases, tweaks may be placed in the main
950 text, but ask about this first.
952 Finally, you should assume that users know what the notation
953 means; explaining musical concepts happens in the Music Glossary.
957 Application Usage: information about using the program lilypond
958 with other programs (lilypond-book, operating systems, GUIs,
959 convert-ly, etc). This section is written in formal technical
962 Users are not expected to read this manual from start to finish.
966 Music Glossary: information about the music notation itself.
967 Explanations and translations about notation terms go here.
969 Users are not expected to read this manual from start to finish.
972 Internals Reference: not really a documentation book, since it is
973 automagically generated from the source, but this is its name.
978 @node Section organization
979 @subsection Section organization
984 The order of headings inside documentation sections should
997 You @emph{must} include a @@seealso.
1001 The order of items inside the @@seealso section is
1010 @@rlearning@{foozle@}.
1023 @@file@{path/to/dir/blahz@}.
1025 Snippets: @@rlsr@{section@}.
1027 Internals Reference:
1028 @@rinternals@{fazzle@},
1029 @@rinternals@{booar@}.
1033 If there are multiple entries, separate them by commas but do not
1037 Always end with a period.
1040 Place each link on a new line as above; this makes it much easier
1041 to add or remove links. In the output, they appear on a single
1044 ("Snippets" is REQUIRED; the others are optional)
1047 Any new concepts or links which require an explanation should go
1048 as a full sentence(s) in the main text.
1051 Don't insert an empty line between @@seealso and the first entry!
1052 Otherwise there is excessive vertical space in the PDF output.
1057 To create links, use @@ref@{@} if the link is within the same
1061 @@predefined ... @@endpredefined is for commands in
1062 @file{ly/@/*-init@/.ly}
1065 Do not include any real info in second-level sections (ie 1.1
1066 Pitches). A first-level section may have introductory material,
1067 but other than that all material goes into third-level sections
1068 (ie 1.1.1 Writing Pitches).
1073 @node Checking cross-references
1074 @subsection Checking cross-references
1076 Cross-references between different manuals are heavily used in the
1077 documentation, but they are not checked during compilation.
1078 However, if you compile the documentation, a script called
1079 check_texi_refs can help you with checking and fixing these
1080 cross-references; for information on usage, cd into a source tree
1081 where documentation has been built, cd into Documentation and run:
1088 Note that you have to find yourself the source files to fix
1089 cross-references in the generated documentation such as the
1090 Internals Reference; e.g. you can grep scm/ and lily/.
1092 @c temporary? how long will kainhofer be used? -gp
1093 Also of interest may be the linkdoc checks on kainhofer.com. Be
1094 warned that these docs are not completely rebuilt every day, so it
1095 might not accurately reflect the current state of the docs.
1098 @uref{http://kainhofer.com/~lilypond/linkdoc/}
1102 @node General writing
1103 @subsection General writing
1108 Do not forget to create @@cindex entries for new sections of text.
1109 Enter commands with @@funindex, i.e.
1112 @@cindex pitches, writing in different octaves
1113 @@funindex \relative
1117 do not bother with the @@code@{@} (they are added automatically).
1118 These items are added to both the command index and the unified
1121 Both index commands should go in front of the actual material.
1123 @@cindex entries should not be capitalized, ie
1126 @@cindex time signature
1130 is preferred instead of @qq{Time signature}, Only use capital
1131 letters for musical terms which demand them, like D.S. al Fine.
1133 For scheme functions, only include the final part, i.e.,
1136 @@funindex modern-voice-cautionary
1138 @@funindex #(set-accidental-style modern-voice-cautionary)
1147 In general, use the American spellings. The internal lilypond
1148 property names use this spelling.
1151 List of specific terms:
1155 simultaneous NOT concurrent
1156 measure: the unit of music
1157 bar line: the symbol delimiting a measure NOT barline
1158 note head NOT notehead
1159 chord construct NOT chord (when referring to <>)
1167 @node Technical writing style
1168 @subsection Technical writing style
1170 These refer to the NR. The LM uses a more gentle, colloquial
1176 Do not refer to LilyPond in the text. The reader knows what the
1177 manual is about. If you do, capitalization is LilyPond.
1180 If you explicitly refer to @q{lilypond} the program (or any other
1181 command to be executed), write @code{@@command@{lilypond@}}.
1184 Do not explicitly refer to the reader/user. There is no one else
1185 besides the reader and the writer.
1188 Avoid contractions (don't, won't, etc.). Spell the words out completely.
1191 Avoid abbreviations, except for commonly used abbreviations of foreign
1192 language terms such as etc. and i.e.
1195 Avoid fluff (@qq{Notice that,} @qq{as you can see,}
1199 The use of the word @q{illegal} is inappropriate in most cases.
1200 Say @q{invalid} instead.
1205 @node Tips for writing docs
1206 @section Tips for writing docs
1208 In the NR, I highly recommend focusing on one subsection at a
1209 time. For each subsection,
1214 check the mundane formatting. Are the headings (@@predefined,
1215 @@seealso, etc.) in the right order?
1218 add any appropriate index entries.
1221 check the links in the @@seealso section -- links to music
1222 glossary, internal references, and other NR sections are the main
1223 concern. Check for potential additions.
1226 move LSR-worthy material into LSR. Add the snippet, delete the
1227 material from the .itely file, and add a @@lilypondfile command.
1230 check the examples and descriptions. Do they still work?
1231 @strong{Do not} assume that the existing text is
1232 accurate/complete; some of the manual is highly out of date.
1235 is the material in the @@knownissues still accurate?
1238 can the examples be improved (made more explanatory), or is there
1239 any missing info? (feel free to ask specific questions on -user;
1240 a couple of people claimed to be interesting in being
1241 @qq{consultants} who would help with such questions)
1245 In general, I favor short text explanations with good examples --
1246 @qq{an example is worth a thousand words}. When I worked on the
1247 docs, I spent about half my time just working on those tiny
1248 lilypond examples. Making easily-understandable examples is much
1249 harder than it looks.
1252 @subsubheading Tweaks
1254 In general, any \set or \override commands should go in the
1255 @qq{select snippets} section, which means that they should go in
1256 LSR and not the .itely file. For some cases, the command
1257 obviously belongs in the @qq{main text} (i.e. not inside
1258 @@predefined or @@seealso or whatever) -- instrument names are a
1259 good example of this.
1262 \set Staff.instrumentName = #"foo"
1265 On the other side of this,
1268 \override Score.Hairpin #'after-line-breaking = ##t
1271 clearly belongs in LSR.
1273 I'm quite willing to discuss specific cases if you think that a
1274 tweaks needs to be in the main text. But items that can go into
1275 LSR are easier to maintain, so I'd like to move as much as
1276 possible into there.
1279 It would be @qq{nice} if you spent a lot of time crafting nice
1280 tweaks for users@dots{} but my recommendation is @strong{not} to do
1281 this. There's a lot of doc work to do without adding examples of
1282 tweaks. Tweak examples can easily be added by normal users by adding
1285 One place where a documentation writer can profitably spend time writing
1286 or upgrading tweaks is creating tweaks to deal with known issues. It
1287 would be ideal if every significant known issue had a workaround to avoid
1291 @ref{Adding and editing snippets}.
1294 @node Scripts to ease doc work
1295 @section Scripts to ease doc work
1297 @subheading Stripping whitespace
1299 @c TODO: should this be documented elsewhere? It's useful for
1300 @c more than just docs.
1301 To remove extra whitespace from the ends of lines, run
1304 scripts/auxiliar/strip-whitespace.py Documentation/FILENAME
1308 @subheading Sectioning commands
1310 @warning{These commands add whitespace.}
1312 The emacs @code{M-x texinfo-all-menus-update} command will
1313 regenerate @@menu blocks. This can also be run with this
1314 command-line script:
1318 emacs $1 -batch -f texinfo-all-menus-update -f save-buffer
1322 (save the above as something like @command{texinfo-menus.sh}, make
1323 it executable, then run @command{texinfo-menus.sh foo.itely})
1326 @subheading Updating doc with @command{convert-ly}
1328 cd into @file{Documentation/} and run
1331 find . -name '*.itely' | xargs convert-ly -e
1335 This also updates translated documentation.
1339 @node Docstrings in scheme
1340 @section Docstrings in scheme
1342 Material in the Internals reference is generated automatically
1343 from our source code. Any doc work on Internals therefore
1344 requires modifying files in @file{scm/@/*.scm}. Texinfo is allowed
1345 in these docstrings.
1347 Most documentation writers never touch these, though. If you want
1348 to work on them, please ask for help.
1351 @node Translating the documentation
1352 @section Translating the documentation
1354 The mailing list @code{translations@@lilynet.net} is dedicated to
1355 LilyPond web site and documentation translation; on this list, you will
1356 get support from the Translations Meister and experimented translators,
1357 and we regularly discuss translations issues common to all languagues.
1358 All people interested in LilyPond translations are invited to subscribe
1359 to this list regardless of the amount of their contribution, by sending
1360 an email to @code{translations-request@@lilynet.net} with subject
1361 @code{subscribe} and an empty message body. Unless mentioned explicitly
1362 or except if a translations coordinator contacts you privately, you
1363 should send questions, remarks, patches to this list
1364 @code{translations@@lilynet.net}; especially note that the traffic is so
1365 high on English-speaking list @code{lilypond-user@@gnu.org} that it may
1366 take months before your request or contribution is handled if you send a
1367 email to these lists.
1370 * Getting started with documentation translation::
1371 * Documentation translation details::
1372 * Documentation translation maintenance::
1373 * Translations management policies::
1374 * Technical background::
1377 @node Getting started with documentation translation
1378 @subsection Getting started with documentation translation
1380 First, get the sources of branch @code{lilypond/translation} from the
1381 Git repository, see @ref{Starting with Git}.
1384 * Translation requirements::
1385 * Which documentation can be translated::
1386 * Starting translation in a new language::
1389 @node Translation requirements
1390 @unnumberedsubsubsec Translation requirements
1392 Working on LilyPond documentation translations requires the following
1393 pieces of software, in order to make use of dedicated helper tools:
1396 @item Python 2.4 or higher,
1402 It is not required to build LilyPond and the documentation to
1403 translate the documentation. However, if you have enough time and
1404 motivation and a suitable system, it can be very useful to build at
1405 least the documentation so that you can check the output yourself and
1406 more quickly; if you are interested, see @ref{Compiling}.
1408 Before undertaking any large translation work, contributors are
1409 encouraged to contact the @ref{Meisters, Translation Meister}.
1412 @node Which documentation can be translated
1413 @unnumberedsubsubsec Which documentation can be translated
1415 The makefiles and scripts infrastructure currently supports translation
1416 of the following documentation:
1419 @item the web site, the Learning Manual, the Notation Reference and
1420 Application Usage -- Texinfo source, PDF and HTML output; Info output
1421 might be added if there is enough demand for it;
1422 @item the Changes document.
1425 Support for translating the following pieces of documentation should be
1426 added soon, by decreasing order of priority:
1429 @item automatically generated documentation: markup commands,
1430 predefined music functions;
1431 @item the Snippets List;
1432 @item the Internals Reference.
1436 @node Starting translation in a new language
1437 @unnumberedsubsubsec Starting translation in a new language
1439 At top of the source directory, do
1446 or (if you want to install your self-compiled LilyPond locally)
1449 ./autogen.sh --prefix=$HOME
1453 If you want to compile LilyPond -- which is almost required to build
1454 the documentation, but is not required to do translation only -- fix
1455 all dependencies and rerun @command{./configure} (with the same
1456 options as for @command{autogen.sh}).
1458 Then @command{cd} into @file{Documentation/} and run
1461 make ISOLANG=@var{MY-LANGUAGE} new-lang
1465 where @var{MY-LANGUAGE} is the ISO 639 language code.
1467 Finally, add a language definition for your language in
1468 @file{python/@/langdefs@/.py}.
1471 @node Documentation translation details
1472 @subsection Documentation translation details
1474 Please follow all the instructions with care to ensure quality work.
1476 All files should be encoded in UTF-8.
1479 * Files to be translated::
1480 * Translating the Web site and other Texinfo documentation::
1481 * Adding a Texinfo manual::
1484 @node Files to be translated
1485 @unnumberedsubsubsec Files to be translated
1487 @include contributor/doc-translation-list.itexi
1489 In addition, not listed above, Snippets' titles and descriptions
1490 should be translated; they are a part of the Notation Reference and
1491 therefore their priority is 5.
1493 @node Translating the Web site and other Texinfo documentation
1494 @unnumberedsubsubsec Translating the Web site and other Texinfo documentation
1496 Every piece of text should be translated in the source file, except
1497 Texinfo comments, text in @code{@@lilypond} blocks and a few cases
1500 Node names are translated, but the original node name in English should
1501 be kept as the argument of @code{@@translationof} put after the section
1502 title; that is, every piece in the original file like
1506 @@@var{section_command} Bar baz
1510 should be translated as
1513 @@node @var{translation of Foo bar}
1514 @@@var{section_command} @var{translation of Bar baz}
1515 @@translationof Foo bar
1518 The argument of @code{@@rglos} commands and the first argument of
1519 @code{@@rglosnamed} commands must not be translated, as it is the node
1520 name of an entry in Music Glossary.
1522 Every time you translate a node name in a cross-reference, i.e. the
1523 argument of commands @code{@@ref, @@rprogram, @@rlearning, @@rlsr,
1524 @@ruser} or the first argument of their @code{@var{*}named} variants,
1525 you should make sure the target node is defined in the correct source
1526 file; if you do not intend to translate the target node right now, you
1527 should at least write the node definition (that is, the @code{@@node
1528 @@@var{section_commmand} @@translationof} trio mentioned above) in the
1529 expected source file and define all its parent nodes; for each node you
1530 have defined this way but have not translated, insert a line that
1531 contains @code{@@untranslated}. That is, you should end up
1532 for each untranslated node with something like
1535 @@node @var{translation of Foo bar}
1536 @@@var{section_command} @var{translation of Bar baz}
1537 @@translationof Foo bar
1542 @warning{you do not have to translate the node name of a cross-reference
1543 to a node that you do not have translated. If you do, you must define
1544 an @qq{empty} node like explained just above; this will produce a
1545 cross-reference with the translated node name in output, although the
1546 target node will still be in English. On the opposite, if all
1547 cross-references that refer to an untranslated node use the node name in
1548 English, then you do not have to define such an @qq{empty} node, and the
1549 cross-reference text will appear in English in the output. The choice
1550 between these two strategies implies its particular maintenance
1551 requirements and is left to the translators, although the opinion of the
1552 Translation meister leans towards not translating these
1555 Please think of the fact that it may not make sense translating
1556 everything in some Texinfo files, and you may take distance from the
1557 original text; for instance, in the translation of the web site section
1558 Community, you may take this into account depending on what you know the
1559 community in your language is willing to support, which is possible only
1560 if you personnally assume this support, or there exists a public forum
1561 or mailing list listed in Community for LilyPond in your language:
1564 @item @rweb{Bug reports}: this page should be translated only if you
1565 know that every bug report sent on your language's mailing list or forum
1566 will be handled by someone who will translate it to English and send it
1567 on bug-lilypond or add an issue in the tracker, then translate back the
1568 reply from developers.
1570 @item @rweb{Help us}: this page should be translated very freely,
1571 and possibly not at all: ask help for contributing to LilyPond for tasks
1572 that LilyPond community in your language is able and going to handle.
1576 In any case, please mark in your work the sections which do not result
1577 from the direct translation of a piece of English translation, using
1578 comments i.e. lines starting with @q{@code{@@c}}.
1580 Finally, press in Emacs @key{C-c C-u C-a} to update or generate
1581 menus. This process should be made easier in the future, when the helper
1582 script @command{texi-langutils.py} and the makefile target are updated.
1584 Some pieces of text manipulated by build scripts that appear in the
1585 output are translated in a @file{.po} file -- just like LilyPond output
1586 messages -- in @file{Documentation/@/po}. The Gettext domain is named
1587 @code{lilypond-doc}, and unlike @code{lilypond} domain it is not managed
1588 through the Free Translation Project.
1591 Take care of using typographic rules for your language, especially in
1592 @file{macros@/.itexi}.
1594 If you wonder whether a word, phrase or larger piece of text should be
1595 translated, whether it is an argument of a Texinfo command or a small
1596 piece sandwiched between two Texinfo commands, try to track whether and
1597 where it appears in PDF and/or HTML output as visible text. This piece
1598 of advice is especially useful for translating @file{macros@/.itexi}.
1600 Please keep verbatim copies of music snippets (in @code{@@lilypond}
1601 blocs). However, some music snippets containing text that shows in
1602 the rendered music, and sometimes translating this text really helps
1603 the user to understand the documentation; in this case, and only in
1604 this case, you may as an exception translate text in the music
1605 snippet, and then you must add a line immediately before the
1606 @code{@@lilypond} block, starting with
1613 Otherwise the music snippet would be reset to the same content as the
1614 English version at next @command{make snippet-update} run -- see
1615 @ref{Updating documentation translation}.
1620 @@lilypondfile[<number of fragment options>,texidoc]@{@var{filename.ly}@}
1624 in the source, open @file{Documentation/@/snippets/@/@var{filename}@/.ly},
1625 translate the @code{texidoc} header field it contains, enclose it with
1626 @code{texidoc@var{MY-LANGUAGE} = "} and @code{"}, and write it into
1627 @file{Documentation/@/@var{MY-LANGUAGE}/@/texidocs/@/@var{filename}@/.texidoc}.
1628 Additionally, you may translate the snippet's title in @code{doctitle}
1629 header field, in case @code{doctitle} is a fragment option used in
1630 @code{@@lilypondfile}; you can do this exactly the same way as
1631 @code{texidoc}. For instance,
1632 @file{Documentation/@/@var{MY-LANGUAGE}/@/texidocs/@/@var{filename}@/.texidoc}
1636 doctitlees = "Spanish title baz"
1638 Spanish translation blah
1643 Then, you should get these translated strings into compiled snippets in
1644 @file{Documentation/@/snippets}, see @q{General guidelines} in @ref{Adding
1645 and editing snippets}.
1647 @code{@@example} blocks need not be verbatim copies, e.g. variable
1648 names, file names and comments should be translated.
1650 Finally, please carefully apply every rule exposed in @ref{Texinfo
1651 introduction and usage policy}, and @ref{Documentation policy}. If one
1652 of these rules conflicts with a rule specific to your language, please
1653 ask the Translation meister on @email{translations@@lilynet.net} list
1654 and/or the Documentation Editors on @email{lilypond-devel@@gnu.org}
1658 @node Adding a Texinfo manual
1659 @unnumberedsubsubsec Adding a Texinfo manual
1661 In order to start translating a new manual whose basename is @var{FOO},
1665 cd Documentation/@var{MY-LANGUAGE}
1666 cp ../@var{FOO}.tely .
1668 cp web/GNUmakefile @var{FOO}
1672 then append @var{FOO} to variable @code{SUBDIRS} in
1673 Documentation/@var{MY-LANGUAGE}/GNUmakefile, then translate file
1674 @var{MY-LANGUAGE}/@var{FOO}.tely and run @code{skeleton-update}:
1678 make ISOLANG=@var{MY-LANGUAGE} TEXI_LANGUTIL_FLAGS=--head-only skeleton-update
1682 Your are now ready to translate the new manual exactly like the web site
1683 or the Learning Manual.
1686 @node Documentation translation maintenance
1687 @subsection Documentation translation maintenance
1689 Several tools have been developed to make translations maintenance
1690 easier. These helper scripts make use of the power of Git, the
1691 version control system used for LilyPond development.
1693 You should use them whenever you would like to update the translation in
1694 your language, which you may do at the frequency that fits your and your
1695 cotranslators' respective available times. In the case your translation
1696 is up-do-date (which you can discover in the first subsection below), it
1697 is enough to check its state every one or two weeks. If you feel
1698 overwhelmed by the quantity of documentation to be updated, see
1699 @ref{Maintaining without updating translations}.
1702 * Check state of translation::
1703 * Updating documentation translation::
1704 * Updating translation committishes::
1707 @macro seeCommittishesUpdate{}
1708 @warning{do not forget to update the committish in each file you have
1709 completely updated, see @ref{Updating translation committishes}.}
1712 @node Check state of translation
1713 @unnumberedsubsubsec Check state of translation
1715 First pull from Git -- see @ref{Pulling and rebasing}, but DO NOT rebase
1716 unless you are sure to master the translation state checking and
1717 updating system -- then cd into @file{Documentation/} (or at top of the
1718 source tree, replace @command{make} with @command{make -C
1719 Documentation}) and run
1722 make ISOLANG=@var{MY_LANGUAGE} check-translation
1726 This presents a diff of the original files since the most recent
1727 revision of the translation. To check a single file, cd into
1728 @file{Documentation/} and run
1731 make CHECKED_FILES=@var{MY_LANGUAGE}/@var{manual}/@var{foo}.itely check-translation
1735 In case this file has been renamed since you last updated the
1736 translation, you should specify both old and new file names, e.g.
1737 @code{CHECKED_FILES=@var{MY_LANGUAGE}/@{@var{manual},user@}/@var{foo}.itely}.
1739 To see only which files need to be updated, do
1742 make ISOLANG=@var{MY_LANGUAGE} check-translation | grep 'diff --git'
1745 To avoid printing terminal colors control characters, which is often
1746 desirable when you redirect output to a file, run
1749 make ISOLANG=@var{MY_LANGUAGE} NO_COLOR=1 check-translation
1752 You can see the diffs generated by the commands above as changes that
1753 you should make in your language to the existing translation, in order
1754 to make your translation up to date.
1756 @seeCommittishesUpdate
1758 Global state of the translation is recorded in
1759 @file{Documentation/@/translations@/.itexi}, which is used to generate
1760 Translations status page. To update that page, do from
1761 @file{Documentation/}
1764 make translation-status
1767 This will also leave @file{out/@/translations@/-status@/.txt}, which contains
1768 up-to-dateness percentages for each translated file, and update word
1769 counts of documentation files in this Guide.
1772 @ref{Maintaining without updating translations}.
1774 @node Updating documentation translation
1775 @unnumberedsubsubsec Updating documentation translation
1777 Instead of running @code{check-translation}, you may want to run
1778 @code{update-translation}, which will run your favorite text editor to
1779 update files. First, make sure environment variable @code{EDITOR} is
1780 set to a text editor command, then run from @file{Documentation/}
1783 make ISOLANG=@var{MY_LANGUAGE} update-translation
1787 or to update a single file
1790 make CHECKED_FILES=@var{MY_LANGUAGE/@var{manual}/foo.itely} update-translation
1793 For each file to be udpated, @code{update-translation} will open your
1794 text editor with this file and a diff of the file in English; if the
1795 diff cannot be generated or is bigger than the file in English itself,
1796 the full file in English will be opened instead.
1798 @seeCommittishesUpdate
1800 Texinfo skeleton files, i.e. @file{.itely} files not yet translated,
1801 containing only the first node of the original file in English can be
1802 updated automatically: whenever @command{make check-translation} shows
1803 that such files should be updated, run from @file{Documentation/}
1806 make ISOLANG=@var{MY_LANGUAGE} skeleton-update
1809 @file{.po} message catalogs in @file{Documentation/@/po/} may be updated
1810 by issuing from @file{Documentation/} or @file{Documentation/@/po/}
1816 @warning{if you run po-update and somebody else does the same and
1817 pushes before you push or send a patch to be applied, there will be a
1818 conflict when you pull. Therefore, it is better that only the
1819 Translation meister runs this command.}
1821 Updating music snippets can quickly become cumbersome, as most
1822 snippets should be identical in all languages. Fortunately, there is
1823 a script that can do this odd job for you (run from
1824 @file{Documentation/}):
1827 make ISOLANG=@var{MY_LANGUAGE} snippet-update
1830 This script overwrites music snippets in
1831 @file{@var{MY_LANGUAGE/@/foo/@/every@/.itely}} with music snippets from
1832 @file{@var{foo/@/every@/.itely}}. It ignores skeleton files, and keeps
1833 intact music snippets preceded with a line starting with @code{@@c
1834 KEEP LY}; it reports an error for each @file{.itely} that has not the
1835 same music snippet count in both languages. Always use this script
1836 with a lot of care, i.e. run it on a clean Git working tree, and check
1837 the changes it made with @command{git diff} before committing; if you
1838 don't do so, some @code{@@lilypond} snippets might be broken or make
1839 no sense in their context.
1841 When you have updated texidocs in
1842 @file{Documentation/@/@var{MY-LANGUAGE}/@/texidocs}, you can get these
1843 changes into compiled snippets in @file{Documentation/@/snippets}, see
1844 @q{General guidelines} in @ref{Adding and editing snippets}.
1846 Finally, a command runs the three update processes above for all
1847 enabled languages (from @file{Documentation/}):
1850 make all-translations-update
1853 Use this command with caution, and keep in mind it will not be really
1854 useful until translations are stabilized after the end of GDP and GOP.
1857 @ref{Maintaining without updating translations},
1858 @ref{Adding and editing snippets}.
1861 @node Updating translation committishes
1862 @unnumberedsubsubsec Updating translation committishes
1864 At the beginning of each translated file except PO files, there is a
1865 committish which represents the revision of the sources which you have
1866 used to translate this file from the file in English.
1868 When you have pulled and updated a translation, it is very important to
1869 update this committish in the files you have completely updated (and
1870 only these); to do this, first commit possible changes to any
1871 documentation in English which you are sure to have done in your
1872 translation as well, then replace in the up-to-date translated files the
1873 old committish by the committish of latest commit, which can be obtained
1877 git rev-list HEAD |head -1
1880 A special case is updating Snippet documentation strings in
1881 @file{Documentation/@/@var{MY-LANGUAGE}/@/texidocs}. For these to be
1882 correctly marked as up-to-date, first run @code{makelsr.py} as
1883 explained in @ref{Adding and editing snippets}, and commit the
1884 resulting compiled snippets left in @file{Documentation/@/snippets/}.
1885 Say the SHA1 ID code of this commit is <C>. Now edit again your
1886 translated files in @file{Documentation/@/@var{MY-LANGUAGE}/@/texidocs}
1887 adjusting the 40-digit committish that appears in the text to be <C>;
1888 finally, commit these updated files. Not doing so would result in
1889 changes made both to your updates and original snippets to
1890 persistently appear in the check-translation output as if they were
1893 This two-phase mechanism avoids the (practically) unsolvable problem
1894 of guessing what committish will have our update, and pretending to
1895 put this very committish on the files in the same commit.
1897 @c http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-devel/2009-01/msg00245.html
1898 @c contains a helper script which could be used to perform massive
1899 @c committish updates.
1905 @node Translations management policies
1906 @subsection Translations management policies
1908 These policies show the general intent of how the translations should
1909 be managed, they aim at helping translators, developers and
1910 coordinators work efficiently.
1913 * Maintaining without updating translations::
1914 * Managing documentation translation with Git::
1917 @node Maintaining without updating translations
1918 @unnumberedsubsubsec Maintaining without updating translations
1920 Keeping translations up to date under heavy changes in the documentation
1921 in English may be almost impossible, especially as during the former
1922 Grand Documentation Project (GDP) or the Grand Organization Project
1923 (GOP) when a lot of contributors brings changes. In addition,
1924 translators may be --- and that is a very good thing --- involved in
1927 it is possible --- and even recommended --- to perform some maintenance
1928 that keeps translated documentation usable and eases future translation
1929 updating. The rationale below the tasks list motivates this plan.
1931 The following tasks are listed in decreasing priority order.
1934 @item Update macros.itexi.
1935 For each obsolete macro definition, if it is possible to update macro
1936 usage in documentation with an automatic text or regexp substitution,
1937 do it and delete the macro definition from macros.itexi; otherwise,
1938 mark this macro definition as obsolete with a comment, and keep it in
1939 macros.itexi until the documentation translation has been updated and
1940 no longer uses this macro.
1942 @item Update @file{*.tely} files completely with
1943 @command{make check-translation} -- you may want to redirect ouptput
1944 to a file because of overwhelming output, or call check-translation.py
1945 on individual files, see @ref{Check state of translation}.
1947 @item In @file{.itelys}, match sections and .itely file names with those from
1948 English docs, which possibly involves moving nodes contents in block
1949 between files, without updating contents itself. In other words, the
1950 game is catching where has gone each section. In Learning manual, and
1951 in Notation Reference sections which have been revised in GDP, there may
1952 be completely new sections: in this case, copy @code{@@node} and
1953 @code{@@section}-command from English docs, and add the marker for
1954 untranslated status @code{@@untranslated} on a single line. Note that
1955 it is not possible to exactly match subsections or subsubsections of
1956 documentation in English, when contents has been deeply revised; in this
1957 case, keep obsolete (sub)subsections in the translation, marking them
1958 with a line @code{@@c obsolete} just before the node.
1960 Emacs with Texinfo mode makes this step easier:
1963 @item without Emacs AucTeX installed, @key{C-c C-s} shows structure of current
1964 Texinfo file in a new buffer @code{*Occur*}; to show structure of two files
1965 simultaneously, first split Emacs window in 4 tiles (with @key{C-x 1}
1966 and @key{C-x 2}), press @key{C-c C-s} to show structure of one file
1967 (e.g. the translated file), copy @code{*Occur*} contents into
1968 @code{*Scratch*}, then press @key{C-c C-s} for the other file.
1970 If you happen to have installed AucTeX, you can either call the macro
1971 by doing @key{M-x texinfo-show-structure} or create a key binding in your
1972 @file{~/.emacs}, by adding the four following lines:
1975 (add-hook 'Texinfo-mode-hook
1977 (define-key Texinfo-mode-map "\C-cs"
1978 'texinfo-show-structure)))
1982 and then obtain the structure in the @code{*Occur*} buffer with @key{C-c
1985 @item Do not bother updating @code{@@menu}s when all menu entries are in the same
1986 file, just do @key{C-c C-u C-a} (@qq{update all menus}) when you have
1987 updated all the rest of the file.
1989 @item Moving to next or previous node using incremental search: press
1990 @key{C-s} and type @code{node} (or @key{C-s @@node} if the text
1991 contains the word @q{node}) then press @key{C-s} to move to next node
1992 or @key{C-r} to move to previous node. Similar operation can be used
1993 to move to the next/previous section. Note that every cursor move
1994 exits incremental search, and hitting @key{C-s} twice starts
1995 incremental search with the text entered in previous incremental
1998 @item Moving a whole node (or even a sequence of nodes): jump to beginning
1999 of the node (quit incremental search by pressing an arrow), press
2000 @key{C-SPACE}, press @key{C-s node} and repeat @key{C-s} until you
2001 have selected enough text, cut it with @key{C-w} or @key{C-x}, jump to
2002 the right place (moving between nodes with the previous hint is often
2003 useful) and paste with @key{C-y} or @key{C-v}.
2006 @item Update sections finished in the English documentation; check
2008 @uref{http://lilypondwiki.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Documentation_coordination}.
2010 @item Update documentation PO. It is recommended not to update
2011 strings which come from documentation that is currently deeply revised
2012 in English, to avoid doing the work more than once.
2014 @item Fix broken cross-references by running (from @file{Documentation/})
2017 make ISOLANG=@var{YOUR-LANGUAGE} fix-xrefs
2021 This step requires a sucessful documentation build (with @command{make
2022 doc}). Some cross-references are broken because they point to a node
2023 that exists in the documentation in English, which has not been added
2024 to the translation; in this case, do not fix the cross-reference but
2025 keep it "broken", so that the resulting HTML link will point to an
2026 existing page of documentation in English.
2029 @subsubheading Rationale
2031 You may wonder if it would not be better to leave translations as-is
2032 until you can really start updating translations. There are several
2033 reasons to do these maintenance tasks right now.
2036 @item This will have to be done sooner or later anyway, before updating
2037 translation of documentation contents, and this can already be done
2038 without needing to be redone later, as sections of documentation in
2039 English are mostly revised once. However, note that not all
2040 documentation sectioning has been revised in one go, so all this
2041 maintenance plan has to be repeated whenever a big reorganization is
2044 @item This just makes translated documentation take advantage of the new
2045 organization, which is better than the old one.
2047 @item Moving and renaming sections to match sectioning of documentation in
2048 English simplify future updating work: it allows updating the
2049 translation by side-by-side comparison, without bothering whether
2050 cross-reference names already exist in the translation.
2052 @item Each maintenance task except @q{Updating PO files} can be done by
2053 the same person for all languages, which saves overall time spent by
2054 translators to achieve this task: the node names and section titles
2055 are in English, so you can do. It is important to take advantage of
2056 this now, as it will be more complicated (but still possible) to do
2057 step 3 in all languages when documentation is compiled with
2058 @command{texi2html} and node names are directly translated in source
2063 @node Managing documentation translation with Git
2064 @unnumberedsubsubsec Managing documentation translation with Git
2066 This policy explains how to manage Git branches and commit
2067 translations to Git.
2070 @item Translation changes matching master branch are preferably made on
2071 @code{lilypond/translation} branch; they may be pushed directly to
2072 @code{master} only if they do not break compilation of LilyPond and
2073 its documentation, and in this case they should be pushed to
2074 @code{lilypond/translation} too. Similarly, changes matching
2075 @code{stable/X.Y} are preferably made on
2076 @code{lilypond/X.Ytranslation}.
2078 @item @code{lilypond/translation} Git branch may be merged into
2079 master only if LilyPond (@command{make all}) and documentation
2080 (@command{make doc}) compile succesfully.
2082 @item @code{master} Git branch may be merged into
2083 @code{lilypond/translation} whenever @command{make} and @command{make
2084 doc} are succesful (in order to ease documentation compilation by
2085 translators), or when significant changes had been made in
2086 documentation in English in master branch.
2088 @item General maintenance may be done by anybody who knows what he does
2089 in documentation in all languages, without informing translators
2090 first. General maintenance include simple text substitutions
2091 (e.g. automated by sed), compilation fixes, updating Texinfo or
2092 lilypond-book commands, updating macros, updating ly code, fixing
2093 cross-references, and operations described in @ref{Maintaining
2094 without updating translations}.
2098 @node Technical background
2099 @subsection Technical background
2101 A number of Python scripts handle a part of the documentation
2102 translation process. All scripts used to maintain the translations
2103 are located in @file{scripts/@/auxiliar/}.
2106 @item @file{check_translation.py} -- show diff to update a translation,
2107 @item @file{texi-langutils.py} -- quickly and dirtily parse Texinfo files to
2108 make message catalogs and Texinfo skeleton files,
2109 @item @file{texi-skeleton-update.py} -- update Texinfo skeleton files,
2110 @item @file{update-snippets.py} -- synchronize ly snippets with those
2112 @item @file{translations-status.py} -- update translations status pages and word
2113 counts in the file you are reading,
2114 @item @file{tely-gettext.py} -- gettext node names, section titles and references
2115 in the sources; WARNING only use this script once for each file, when support for
2116 "makeinfo --html" has been dropped.
2119 Other scripts are used in the build process, in @file{scripts/@/build/}:
2122 @item @file{mass-link.py} -- link or symlink files between English documentation
2123 and documentation in other languages.
2126 Python modules used by scripts in @file{scripts/@/auxiliar/} or @file{scripts/@/build/} (but
2127 not by installed Python scripts) are located in @file{python/@/auxiliar/}:
2129 @item @file{manuals_definitions.py} -- define manual names and name of
2130 cross-reference Texinfo macros,
2131 @item @file{buildlib.py} -- common functions (read piped output
2132 of a shell command, use Git),
2133 @item @file{postprocess_html.py} (module imported by @file{www_post@/.py}) -- add footer and
2134 tweak links in HTML pages.
2139 @item @file{python/langdefs.py} -- language definitions module