X-Git-Url: https://git.donarmstrong.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;ds=sidebyside;f=Documentation%2Fuser%2Fpreface.itely;h=09d561a6c0342510fbfe4f048a4616dc4772ca81;hb=ab388c17b5471cdbab29d6801b60303dbf5d01f3;hp=20a85a9ce364ab62a9244536a296db7c2b54ed33;hpb=68a168bff1fec7f8011b2afa82d4fc89182c4bf7;p=lilypond.git diff --git a/Documentation/user/preface.itely b/Documentation/user/preface.itely index 20a85a9ce3..09d561a6c0 100644 --- a/Documentation/user/preface.itely +++ b/Documentation/user/preface.itely @@ -1,67 +1,50 @@ +@c -*- coding: utf-8; mode: texinfo; -*- @node Preface -@chapter Preface +@unnumbered Preface It must have been during a rehearsal of the EJE (Eindhoven Youth -Orchestra), somewhere in 1994 that Jan, one of the cranked violists -told Han-Wen, one of the distorted french horn players, about the +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. We soon realised that MPP was fundamentally -broken by design and it slowly died during 1995. We debated a lot -about the requirements to an inputformat, but that didn't produce any -new code. In 1996, Han-Wen started LilyPond. This time, Jan got -sucked into Han-Wen's new project. 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. We hope you will have as much fun -in using LilyPond as we have when hacking it. - -This manual was written to help you learn LilyPond, but as you might -imagine, we ourselves don't have much to learn about it. Therefore, -we can't really judge whether the manual is clear for a newbie, but -maybe you can! So, should you find any part of the manual vague or -outdated, please tell us your suggestions: if you don't, we'll never -know. +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. + +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 who use LilyPond, and produce impressive pieces of +sheet music. Seeing that 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 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. + +Playing and printing music is more than a 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/Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 2001. - - -@ignore - -appendix? -[details from lilypond-1.0.0] - -GNU LilyPond's roots lie in MPP, a preprocessor to the rather arcane -MusiXTeX macro package for TeX. A friend of mine, Jan Nieuwenhuizen -wrote the first 44 versions (0.01 to 0.44), then his program caught my -attention, and I was slowly sucked in to the interesting problem of -easily producing beautifully printed music. I contributed some -code. We soon realised that MPP's design was too fundamentally broken -to be repaired, so it was decided to rewrite MPP. We debated a lot about -the requirements to an inputformat (fall 1995). I sat down and started -with a parser-first, bottom-up rewrite called mpp95 (which totally -failed, obviously). - -After long and hard thinking, I came up with an algorithm for the -horizontal spacing of multiple staffs (april 1996) I coded it (and did -not test it). After starting with this fundamental piece, I slowly -added the stages which come before spacing, and after. A half year -later, I had a first working version, (october 1996). I announced -Patchlevel 0.0.7 (or 8) to the mutex list after asking some technical -details on spacing; it was downloaded approximately 4 times. Then I -got the hang of it, and in the subsequent two months, I coded until it -had doubled in size (pl 23). - -Most the other history is described in the NEWS file. The first large -scale release (0.1) was done after approximately 78 patchlevels on -August 1, 1997. - +Utrecht/Eindhoven, The Netherlands, July 2002. -@end ignore