1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
2 @setfilename README.info
3 @settitle This is the toplevel README to LilyPond
7 @chapter This is the toplevel README to LilyPond
10 LilyPond is a music typesetter. It produces beautiful sheet music
11 using a high level description file as input. LilyPond is part of
16 LilyPond uses a versioning scheme similar to the Linux kernel. In a
17 version "x.y.z", an even second number 'y' denotes a stable version.
18 For development versions 'y' is odd. So, in theory, version 1.2 is stable,
19 which means that there are no glaring errors in it. In practice 1.2.x is also
22 1.3.x is in healthy development: lots of problems turn up, but they're
23 fixed quickly. Therefore we recommend you try 1.2.x, if you have any
24 problem with it, upgrade to the latest 1.3.x release.
28 For the compilation and running of LilyPond you need some additional
29 packages. Please refer to the installation instructions in
32 NOTE: If you downloaded a binary (.rpm or a W95/NT .zip file),
33 you don't have to compile LilyPond.
37 For your convenience, a formatted copy of the INSTALL instructions are
38 in the toplevel directory, as INSTALL.txt
40 @section Documentation
42 The documentation is available online at
43 @uref{http://www.lilypond.org/}. You can also build it locally. This
44 does require a working LilyPond binary. The following formats are
48 @item HTML. Refer to INSTALL.txt for information
49 on how to make the HTML documentation.
51 @item @file{.dvi}, for the tutorial and reference manual. Do
54 make -C Documentation/user/ dvi
57 The printable documentation is left in @file{Documentation/user/out/}.
59 @item paper. Create the .dvi documentation, and print it with dvips.
66 LilyPond is a long way from finished and polished, so we please send
67 your criticism, comments, bugreports, patches, etc., to the mailing
68 list. and @emph{not} to us personally.
70 We have the following mailing lists:
73 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu-music,info-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
74 is a low-volume list for information on the GNU Music project.
75 This list is moderated; ask
76 @email{drl@@gnu.org, David R. Linn} or
77 @email{hanwen@@cs.uu.nl, Han-Wen} to send announcements for this
80 @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-music-discuss,gnu-music-discuss@@gnu.org}
81 For general discussions concerning LilyPond.
83 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-music,help-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
84 For help with using LilyPond.
85 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-gnu-music,bug-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
86 If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list.
92 If you have received this file as part of a DOS/Window32 distribution
93 (@file{LilyPond-*.zip}), it is advisable to also download the
94 @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/,source package}, since it
95 might contain more documentation
99 If you have installed a previous version, be sure to remove old font
102 rm `find /var/lib/texmf/fonts -name 'feta*'`
105 a script to do this for you is in @file{buildscripts/clean-fonts.sh}
109 Send bug reports to @email{bug-gnu-music@@gnu.org}. For help and
110 questions use @email{help-gnu-music@@gnu.org} and
111 @email{gnu-music-discuss@@gnu.org}. Please consult the FAQ and
112 installation instructions before mailing your problems.