+@c -*- coding: latin-1; mode: texinfo; -*-
@node Preface
-@chapter Preface
+@unnumbered Preface
-Some six years ago I was in the EJE (Eindhoven Youth Orchestra), and
-Jan, one of the cranked violists told me 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). Accidentally, I also
-wanted to print out some parts from a score, so I started looking at his
-software, and quickly got hooked. The rest is, as they say, history.
-You're reading the preface of the manual for LilyPond 1.4, which is in
-all honesty, the first release of LilyPond that combines stability,
-flexibility and good documentation. I hope you have as much fun in using
-LilyPond as I had when hacking it.
+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
+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
+some parts from a score, so he started looking at the software, and he
+quickly got hooked. It was decided that MPP was a dead end. After
+lots of philosophizing and heated email exchanges Han-Wen started
+LilyPond in 1996. This time, Jan got sucked into Han-Wen's new
+project.
-This manual was written to help you learn lily, but as you might
-imagine, I don't have anything learn about it. It's hard for me as a
-writer to judge whether the manual is clear for a newbie, but you can!
-So, should you find any part of the manual vague or outdated, please let
-us know: if you don't tell us, we'll never know.
+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 cannot do are challenging. After the initial excitement,
+you have to practice and practice. Scales and studies can be dull, and
+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 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 produce impressive pieces of
+sheet music. Seeing that feels unreal, but in a very pleasant way.
-Han-Wen Nienhuys
+Our users not only give us good vibes by using our program, many of
+them also help us by giving suggestions and sending bug reports, so we
+would like to thank all users that sent us bug reports, gave
+suggestions or contributed in any other way to LilyPond.
-Utrecht, The Netherlands, March 2001.
+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!
+Han-Wen and Jan
+Utrecht/Eindhoven, The Netherlands, July 2002.
-[preface jcn here? ]
+@menu
+* Notes for version 2.4::
+@end menu
+
+@node Notes for version 2.4
+@unnumberedsec Notes for version 2.4
+
+The most important developments in 2.4 are related. In LilyPond 2.4
+@TeX{} is no longer strictly necessary to engrave music. This is
+because LilyPond can now also layout pages and determine page breaks.
+Another notable feature is the syntax, which has been simplified even
+further compared to previous versions.
+
+
+
+
+Han-Wen and Jan
+
+Utrecht/Eindhoven, The Netherlands, September 2004.
projects / lilypond.git / blobdiff