=head1 DESCRIPTION
-Random ranting about the GNU Music project
+Random ranting about the GNU Music project.
-=head GOAL
+=head1 GOAL
-Provide the users with free software for:
+Provide musicians with free software for
- - composing
- - setting
- - playing
- - sequencing
- - interchanging music
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+composing
+
+=item *
+
+engraving
+
+=item *
+
+playing
+
+=item *
+
+sequencing
-and possibly for
+=item *
+
+interchanging music
- - arranging
- - performing
+=item *
-Music publishers make lots of money out of selling sheet music which
-is in the public domain (the composers died a long time ago). It is
-usually prohibited to xerox the sheet music. Publishers have two
-arguments for not allowing this: high prices are there to guarantee
-diversity (keeping lots of stock is expensive), and to encourage new
-work being composed.
+arranging
-LilyPond addresses the first issue: storing mudelas takes up almost no
-space at all. Other systems should address the other issue:
-encouraging laymen to take up composing, in the same way that GNU
-tools have created a whole new generation of programmers.
+=item *
+
+performing
+
+=back
-The public deserves to get public domain music for free (zero cents).
+These systems should encourage laymen to take up composing, in the
+same way that GNU tools have created a whole new generation of
+programmers.
The public deserves free tools for composing and printing.
=over 4
-=item * high-quality
+=item high-quality
(cf TeX), from engraving point of view
-=item * high-quality
+=item high-quality
(cf Emacs) from software point of view: like all GNU software, it
should have no limits, be fast, etc.
-=item * tweakable
+=item tweakable
Printed music has a lot of styles, and special symbols. It may be
unfeasible to provide and maintain lots of code that is hardwired
into the system. The tools should be extensible/programmable like
Emacs and TeX
-=item * easy to use.
+=item easy to use.
That is, for technical users (that can read a manual). The learning
-curve should be as easy as possible but not at the expense of comfort
+curve should be as flat as possible but not at the expense of comfort
of use and power.
=back
-=head1 TASKS (LONGTERM)
+=head1 COMPONENTS
=over 4
=item A set of music fonts
-Preferably in Metafont, suited to both screen display and use on paper
+Preferably in Metafont, suited to both screen display and use on
+paper.
-The copyright heritage of Musixtex is unclear.
-
-
-=item A typesetting engine.
+=item A typesetting engine
A system with rules on how to set properties of items to be printed
-(up/down directions, breaking, etc) LilyPond provides one, but it is
-not yet suited to interactive typesetting
+(up/down directions, breaking, dimensions, etc) LilyPond provides one,
+but it is not (yet) suited to interactive typesetting
=item A display engine
which can display clear notewriting in (say) an X-window
-Gsharp is there, but far from finished. Ideally the system should
-cooperate with the typesetting engine
+Ideally the system should cooperate with the typesetting engine
=item An ASCII language
(difficult) A system to generate accompaniments, figured bass,
automatic accompaniment, etc.
-=item an internet archive of free music
-
-The complete works by Bach, Beethoven, and any other ancient composer
-should be electronically retrievable. This might be a separate
-project: the Free Music Project.
=back
=item *
-Libraries for reading, writing various audio/music/notation formats.
+Libraries for reading and writing various audio/music/notation
+formats.
=back
-The typesetting system has a complexity comparable to TeX's, the GUI
-would be comparable to LyX (?) with additional complexity in
-recognizing input.
-
=head1 TASKS (SHORT TERM)
=over 4
-=item *
+=item *
-Gather a moderate number of test users and hackers
+Think about interfaces for components.
=item *
-A website on GMP
+Find sponsors. This project will take a long time, and in its infant
+stages, having a hard and small core which does a lot of work, is more
+efficient than lots of people doing small subprojects. Finanicial
+support would be desirable.
-=item *
+=back
-Libs for r/w MIDI
-=item *
-Think about interfaces for components.
+=head1 HISTORY
-=item *
-Find sponsors. This project will take a long time, and in its infant
-stages, having a hard and small core which does a lot of work, is more
-efficient than lots of people doing small subprojects. Finanicial
-support would be desirable.
+Please note that this all happened when I wasn't around yet. If you
+think that I am a biased, unfair, predisposed hypocrite, then don't
+bother flaming me; I already know that.
+
+The GNU Music project is a project which aims to create free software
+for music printing and composing. It was started in november '92 by a
+core team of four members (Bryan Ford <baford@cs.utah.edu>, David Linn
+<drl@vuse.vanderbilt.edu>, Francois Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca>,
+Neil Jerram <nj104@cus.cam.ac.uk>) and in January '93 Robert Strandh
+<Robert.Strandh@labri.u-bordeaux.fr> joined.
+
+After serious disputes with Robert Strandh and the FSF staff in '94,
+the project core team got divided. The development efforts of GMP
+stopped.
+
+Independently, I (HWN) started LilyPond. When I showed it to
+RMS, he was very enthousiastic about having LilyPond in the GNU
+project. I subsequently learned about the GNU Music project, and
+contacted them.
+
+What was left of the GMP (Robert Strandh) and us, LilyPond people,
+agreed that cooperation would be desirable. Although merging of both
+efforts was and is technically infeasible, we did decide that LilyPond
+should also be part of the GNU Music project.
+
+Only later did I discover the previous quarrels about the GMP-"take
+1". To show that I am aware of the history, and to make sure nobody
+gets me wrong or is angry at me because I stole a project or a
+project's name, I wrote this note.
+
+In summary, LilyPond is now the only substantial embodiment of the GNU
+Music Project, and it is part of the GNU project.
+
+For completeness' sake, I will mention the other efforts here:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item G Sharp, http://dept-info.labri.u-bordeaux.fr/~strandh/Gsharp
+
+An alpha version notation editor for X in Scheme. Source available on
+request from Robert Strandh.
+
+=item GNU music,
+
+An alpha version of a music editing system with Musictex
+output. Pretest versions of GNU Music (v0.3) can still be obtained from
+Francois Pinard.
=back
+This history note is probably biased in some way, because I wrote it.
+The rest of this document is also entirely mine, and is not meant to
+reflect anyone else's opinion.
+
projects / lilypond.git / blobdiff