@comment @c -*-texinfo-*-
+
@node Preface
@unnumbered Preface
+@menu
+* Preface to version 2.0::
+* Preface to version 1.8::
+* Preface to version 1.6::
+@end menu
+
+
+@node Preface to version 2.0
+@unnumberedsec Preface to version 2.0
+
+
+Due to personal circumstances, Han-Wen was able to do a lot more on
+LilyPond during the past months. A testament to that is the quick
+release of version 2.0, less than two months after 1.8. We have taken
+the opportunity to make a few radical changes to the syntax: note
+attributes, like articulation, dynamics and fingerings are now
+post-fix exclusively. This makes entering scores easier: you never
+have to think about the order of the attributes. With version 2.0, we
+have a new and improved platform for working on notation and
+typography features for coming versions,
+
+Due to other personal circumstances, Jan was not able to do more than
+packaging for Cygwin. The good news is that we now have a nearly
+fool-proof installation for Windows. He will be back in 2.1.
+
+
+Han-Wen and Jan
+
+Utrecht/Eindhoven, The Netherlands, September 2003.
+
+@node Preface to version 1.8
+@unnumberedsec Preface to version 1.8
+
+If you are familiar with LilyPond version 1.6, then version 1.8 will
+no offer no big surprises. The only conspicuous change is in the way
+that formatted text is entered. There is now a new syntax that is more
+friendly, more versatile and extensible. We hope you like it. In
+general, development on version 1.8 has been focused on improving the
+design of various internal mechanisms. This includes chord name
+formatting and entry code, music expression storage, and integration
+between LilyPond and Scheme. These changes may not be evident
+directly, but they make the program more robust and more flexible,
+which translates into fewer bugs and more adjustment options.
+
+Special thanks for version 1.8 go out to Juergen Reuter for lots of
+work on the ancient notation engine, and to Amy Zapf for pushing us to
+rewrite the chord name support.
+
+@c TODO [wie meer?]
+
+Han-Wen and Jan,
+
+Utrecht/Eindhoven, The Netherlands, April/May 2003.
+
+@node Preface to version 1.6
+@unnumberedsec Preface to version 1.6
It must have been during a rehearsal of the EJE (Eindhoven Youth
Orchestra), somewhere in 1995 that Jan, one of the cranked violists
-told Han-Wen, one of the distorted french horn players, about the
+told Han-Wen, one of the distorted French horn players, about the
grand new project he was working on. It was an automated system for
printing music (to be precise, it was MPP, a preprocessor for
MusiXTeX). As it happened, Han-Wen accidentally wanted to print out
In some ways, developing a computer program is like learning to play
an instrument. In the beginning, discovering how it works is fun, and
-the things you can't do are challenging. After the initial excitement,
+the things you cannot do are challenging. After the initial excitement,
you have to practice and practice. Scales and studies can be dull, and
-if you aren't motivated by others, be them teachers, conductors or
-audience, it is very tempting to give up. You continue, and gradually
-playing it becomes a part of your life. Some days it comes naturally,
-and it's wonderful, and on some days it just doesn't work, but you
-keep playing, day after day.
+if you are not motivated by others---teachers, conductors or
+audience---it is very tempting to give up. You continue, and gradually
+playing becomes a part of your life. Some days it comes naturally, and
+it is wonderful, and on some days it just does not work, but you keep
+playing, day after day.
Like making music, working on LilyPond is can be dull work, and on
some days it feels like plodding through a morass of
bugs. Nevertheless, it has become a part of our life, and we keep
doing it. Probably the most important motivation is that our program
actually does something useful for people. When we browse around the
-net we find many people that use LilyPond, and use it to produce
-impressive pieces of sheet music. Seeing that still feels unreal, but
-in a very pleasant way.
+net we find many people that use LilyPond, and produce impressive
+pieces of sheet music. Seeing that still feels unreal, but in a very
+pleasant way.
Our users not only give us good vibes by using our program, many of
-them also help us by giving suggestions and sending bugreports. So,
+them also help us by giving suggestions and sending bugreports. So
first and foremost, we would like to thank all users that sent us
bugreports, gave suggestions or contributed in any other way to
LilyPond.
-We would especially like to thank the following people: Mats Bengtsson
-for the incountable number of questions he answered on the mailing
-list, and Rune Zedeler for his energy in finding and fixing bugs.
-Nicola Bernardini for inviting us to his workshop on music publishing,
-which was truly a masterclass, and Heinz Stolba and James Ingram for
-teaching us there. [wie nog meer?]
+We would also like to thank the following people: Mats Bengtsson for
+the incountable number of questions he answered on the mailing list,
+and Rune Zedeler for his energy in finding and fixing bugs. Nicola
+Bernardini for inviting us to his workshop on music publishing, which
+was truly a masterclass, and Heinz Stolba and James Ingram for
+teaching us there.
-Playing and printing music is more than nice analogy: programming
+Playing and printing music is more than nice analogy. Programming
together is a lot of fun, and helping people is deeply satisfying, but
ultimately, working on LilyPond is a way to express our deep love for
music. May it help you create lots of beautiful music!
projects / lilypond.git / blobdiff