LilyPond is a program to print sheet music. If you have used notation
programs before, then the way to use this program might be surprising
-at first sight. To print music with lilypond, you have to enter
-musical codes in a file. Then you run LilyPond on the file, and the
-music is produced without any further intervention. For example,
-something like this:
+at first sight: in order to print music you have to enter musical
+codes in a file. Then you run the program on the file, and the music
+is produced without any further intervention. For example, something
+like this:
-@lilypond[fragment,verbatim, relative 1, intertext="produces this
+
+@lilypond[fragment,verbatim, relative 1, intertext="produces this:
"]
\key c \minor r8 c16 b c8 g as c16 b c8 d | g,4
easier than it seems. Entering music can be done quickly, and you
never have to remember how you made the program do something
complicated: it is all in the input code, and you only have to read
-the file to see how it works. Moreover, when you use LilyPond, you are
-rewarded with very nicely looking output.
+the file to see how it works. Moreover, you are rewarded with very
+nicely looking output.
In this chapter, we will explain the reasoning behind this unusual
design, and how this approach affects you as a user.
* Batch processing::
* Music engraving::
* Music representation::
-* Program design::
* Example applications::
* About this manual::
@end menu
When we started developing LilyPond, we were still studying at the
university. We were interested in music notation, not as publishers
-or musicians, but as students and scientists. We wanted to figure to
-what extent formatting sheet music could be automated. Back then GUIs
-were not as ubiquitous as they are today, and we were immersed in the
-UNIX operating system, where it is very common to use compilers to
-achieve computing tasks, so our computerized music engraving
+or musicians, but as programmers and scientists. We wanted to figure
+to what extent formatting sheet music could be automated. Back then
+GUIs were not as ubiquitous as they are today, and we were immersed in
+the UNIX operating system, where it is very common to use compilers to
+achieve computing tasks. So, our computerized music engraving
experiment took on the form of a compiler.
@cindex blackness
@cindex balance
-The figure above shows a few notable glyphs. For example, the
-half-notehead is not elliptic but slightly diamond shaped. The
+
+The figure above shows a few notable glyphs. For example, the
vertical stem of a flat symbol should be slightly brushed,
-i.e. becoming wider at the top. Fine endings, such as the one on the
-bottom of the quarter rest, should not end in sharp points, but rather
-in rounded shapes. Taken together, the blackness of the font must be
+i.e. becoming wider at the top. the half-notehead is not elliptic but
+slightly diamond shaped. Fine endings, such as the one on the bottom
+of the quarter rest, should not end in sharp points, but rather in
+rounded shapes. Taken together, the blackness of the font must be
carefully tuned together with the thickness of lines, beams and slurs
to give a strong yet balanced overall impression.
big gaps with white space. The distances between notes should reflect
the durations between notes, but adhering with mathematical precision
to the duration will lead to a poor result. Shown here is an example
-of a motive, printed twice. It is printed using both exact,
+of a motive, printed twice. It is printed using both exact
mathematical spacing, and with some corrections. Can you spot which is
which?
played in a constant rhythm. The spacing should reflect
that. Unfortunately, the eye deceives us a little: the eye not only
notices the distance between note heads, but also between consecutive
-stems. The notes of a up-stem/down-stem combination should be put
-farther apart, and the notes of a down-up combination should be put
-closer together, all depending on the combined vertical positions of
-the notes. The first two measures are printed with this correction,
-the last two measures without. The notes in the last two measures form
-downstem/upstems clumps of notes.
+stems. As a result, the notes of a up-stem/down-stem combination
+should be put farther apart, and the notes of a down-up combination
+should be put closer together, all depending on the combined vertical
+positions of the notes. The first two measures are printed with this
+correction, the last two measures without. The notes in the last two
+measures form downstem/upstems clumps of notes.
We hope that these examples show that music typography is a subtle
business, and that it requires skill and knowledge to produce good
solved if they are well-specified. Moreover, formally defined formats
are easier to write programs for.
-
These ideas shaped our music representation: it is a compact format
that can easily be typed by hand. It complex musical constructs from
simple entities like notes and rests, in much the same way that one
builds complex formulas from simple expressions such as numbers and
mathematical operators.
-@node Program design
-@section Program design
+@node Example applications
+@section Example applications
-The strict separation between musical information and typesetting also
-gives a blueprint of the program: first it reads the music
-representation, then it interprets the music---reading it
-`left-to-right', and translating the musical information to a layout
-specification. When the layout is computed, the resulting symbols are
-written to an output file.
+As programmers and hedonists we enjoy beauty in code, and code that
+produces beautiful typeset music, but nevertheless this program can
+applied to do useful things. In this section, we show a few small
+examples of what is possible.
-TODO: more about design?
+The simplest application, is printing just notes.
-@node Example applications
-@section Example applications
+@lilypond[relative=1]
+ \time 2/4 c4 c g'4 g a4 a g2
+@end lilypond
+
+To these notes, chord names and lyrics may be added
-TODO: show what sort of things lily can be used for.
+@lilypond[raggedright]
+\score { <
+ \context ChordNames \chords { c2 c f2 c }
+ \notes \relative c' { \time 2/4 c4 c g'4 g a4 a g2 }
+ \context Lyrics \lyrics { twin kle twin kle lit tle star } > }
+@end lilypond
+
+
+[TODO: need piano and tab example]
+
+The following example combines some more exotic uses of notation
+
+@lilypondfile{screech-boink.ly}
@node About this manual
@section About this manual
-[
-
The manual is divided into the following chapters
-@itemize
-@item Tutorial
-gives a gentle introduction into using lilypond
-@item
-Reference manual: each aspect of typesetting music is discussed
+@itemize @bullet
+@item The @emph{tutorial}
+(@ref{Tutorial}) gives a gentle introduction into typesetting music.
+First time users should start here.
+@item The @emph{notation manual} (@ref{Notation manual}),
+is a user manual that discusses topics grouped by notation construct.
+@item The @emph{technical manual} (@ref{Advanced topics})
+discusses the general design of the program, and how to extend the
+functionality.
+@item The chapter
+on @emph{Invoking} (@ref{Invoking LilyPond}) explains how to run LilyPond and its helper
+programs.
+@end itemize
+
+Once you are experienced, you can simply use the manual as reference:
+there is an extensive index@footnote{If you are looking for something,
+and you cannot find it by using the index, that is considered a bug.
+In that case, please file a bug report}, but the document is also
+available in
+@ifnothtml
+One Big Page,
+@end ifnothtml
+@ifhtml
+@uref{One Big Page,../lilypond.html}
+@end ifhtml
+which is is available for text search using your browser's search
+facility.
+@cindex search in manual
+@cindex using the manual
+
+
+If you are familiar with music notation, and music terminology
+(especially if you are a foreigner), then it is advisable to consult
+the glossary as well. This documents explains many terms, and includes
+translations to various languages. It is a
+@ifhtml
+@uref{../glossary.html,separate document}
+@end ifhtml
+@ifnothtml
+separate document, and can be printed as well.
+@end ifnothtml
+@cindex idiom
+@cindex jargon
+@cindex terminology
+@cindex foreign languages
+@cindex language
+
+
+This manual is not complete without a number of other documents. They
+are not available in print, but should be included with the
+documentation package for your platform
+
+@itemize @bullet
@item
-Advanced topics: how it works from the inside, scripting lilypond.
+Generated internal documentation.
+@ifhtml
+available @uref{../lilypond-internals/lilypond-internals.html,here}
+@end ifhtml
+
+Almost all formatting functionality that is used internally, is
+available directly to the user. For example, all variables that
+control thicknesses, distances, etc, can be changed in input
+files. There are a huge number of formatting options, and it would be
+impossible to describe them all in a hand-written manual. The
+generated internal documentation is a heavily crosslinked HTML
+document, produced directly from the formatting definitions used. It
+documents the nit-gritty details of each and every LilyPond class, object and
+function.
+
+Each section of the reference manual has a @b{See also}
+subsection, with links (in the HTML document, at least) to the
+generated documentation.
+
@item
-Invoking: running LilyPond and its helper programs.
-@end itemize
+ Templates
+@ifhtml
+(available @uref{../../../input/templates/out-www/collated-files.html,here})
+@end ifhtml
-This manual is not complete: a part of the functionality is available
-through a generic system of properties: variables that can be set by
-the user to override certain functionality. Accompanying this manual
-is a document that describes all properties available, and all types
-of typographic and musical objects.
-
-TODO: rewrite rest of this section too.
-]
-
-As you will notice in the coming pages the program makes good
-decisions in a lot of cases: what comes out of LilyPond generally
-looks good. The default layout of lilypond even is suitable for
-publication for some specific files. However, some aspects of the
-formatting are not yet very good. For us programmers, this gives
-inspiration for improving the program. However, most users are more
-interested in improving their printouts, and then they have to make
-manual adjustments to the output. Another aspect of our system of
-encoding through ASCII then shows: it can be complicated to fine tune
-the layout of a piece. There is no graphical user interface, where you
-can simply click and drag a symbol. On the other hand, if you have
-written the code for tuning one specific aspect of the layout, then
-you can simply store the file on disk, retrieve it when you need it:
-there is no need to remember how you did it, since it is all in the
-input file.
+ When you have gone through the tutorial, you theoretically should be
+able to start writing input files. However, this turns out to be a
+little intimidating. To give you a headstart, we have collected a
+number of often-used formats in example files. You can take one of
+these example files, and add notes in the appropriate places to
+generate output.
+@item
+ Various input examples
+@ifhtml
+available @uref{../../../input/test/out-www/collated-files.html,here}
+@end ifhtml
@cindex snippets
-@cindex adjusting output
-Lilypond also comes with a huge collection of snippets that show all
-kinds of tricks. This collection is much needed, because of the way
-LilyPond is structured. It is a large program, but almost all of the
-internal functionality is exported: that is, the variables that are
-internally used for formatting the sheet music are available directly
-to the user. These are variables to control thicknesses, distances,
-and other formatting options. There are a huge number of them, and it
-would be impossible to describe them all in a hand-written
-manual. There is no need to despair, there is an `automatic' manual,
-that lists all of the variables that are available. It is directly
-generated from the definitions that LilyPond itself uses, so it is
-always up to date. If you are reading this from a screen: it is
-available from the web, and is included with most binary
-distributions. If you are reading this from paper, then we advise you
-to use the digital version anyway: the hyperlinks make finding topics
-in the lilypond-internals manual much easier.
+These small files show various applications of lilypond, and are
+available as a big HTML document, with pictures and explanatory texts
+included.
+
+
+@item
+ The regression test
+@ifhtml
+available @uref{../../../input/regression/out-www/collated-files.html,here}
+@end ifhtml
+
+We strive to test each feature in one test file. This collection of is
+primarily to help us debug problems, but it can be instructive to see
+how we excercise the program. The format is like the input examples.
+
+@end itemize
+The location of the documentation files that are mentioned here can
+vary from system to system. Throughout this manual, we refer to input
+files relative to the top-directory of the source archive. For
+example, @file{input/test/bla.ly} may refer to the file
+@file{lilypond-1.7.19/input/test/bla.ly}. On binary packages for the
+Unix platform, these can typically be found somewhere below
+@file{/usr/share/doc/lilypond/}. Initialization files, for example
+@file{scm/lily.scm}, or @file{ly/engraver-init.ly}, are usually found
+in the directory @file{/usr/share/lilypond/}.
+
+@cindex adjusting output
@cindex variables
@cindex properties
@cindex lilypond-internals
@cindex internal documentation
-
-For those who really want to get their hands dirty: it is even
-possible to add your own functionality, by extending LilyPond in the
-built-in scripting language, a dialect of the powerful programming
-language Scheme. There is no real distinction between what a user can
-do and what a programmer is allowed to do.
-
@cindex Scheme
@cindex extending lilypond
-
-In summary, this manual does not pretend to be exhaustive, but it is
-merely a guide that tries to explain the most important principles,
-and shows popular input idioms. The rest of the manual is structured
-as follows: it starts with a tutorial that explains how to use
-lilypond. In the tutorial, a number of fragments of increasing
-complexity are shown and explained. Then comes the reference manual,
-which gives more detailed information on all features. If you are new
-to lilypond, then you should start reading the tutorial, and
-experiment for yourself. If you already have some experience, then
-you can simply use the manual as reference: there is an extensive
-index@footnote{If you are looking for something, and you cannot find it
-by using the index, that is considered a bug. In that case, please
-file a bug report}, but the document is also available in One Big Page,
-@c should have hyperlink?
-which is is available for text search using your browser's search
-facility.
-
-@cindex searchin manual
-@cindex using the manual
@cindex bugreport
@cindex index
-@cindex tutorial
-@cindex overview of manual
-@cindex idiom
-
-[TODO: edit following]
-
-This is the end of the tutorial. If you read everything until this point
-(and understood everything!) then you are now an accomplished lilypond
-hacker. From here you should try fiddling with input files or making your
-own input files. Come back to the reference manual for more information
-if you get stuck!
-
-Do not forget to check out the
-@ifhtml
-@uref{../../../../input/template/out-www/template.html,templates},
-@uref{../../../../input/test/out-www/test.html,examples} and
-@uref{../../../../input/regression/out-www/regression.html,feature tests}.
-@end ifhtml
-@ifnothtml
-templates, examples and feature tests.
-@end ifnothtml
-If you want to see real action LilyPond, head over to
-@uref{http://www.mutopiaproject.org}, which has many examples of
-classical music typeset with LilyPond.
projects / lilypond.git / blobdiff