X-Git-Url: https://git.donarmstrong.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=Documentation%2Fuser%2Fpreface.itely;h=54dc1232d0d3bf057c1ef947fa2e185662a00afc;hb=d73c2df4e7249f3b35c3528b0cc000186d67e7b3;hp=44469af50ce0759af16113139b4fb45e35a89c19;hpb=d8138e9ca4e95622dfebfa470dce64d23eaf2931;p=lilypond.git diff --git a/Documentation/user/preface.itely b/Documentation/user/preface.itely index 44469af50c..54dc1232d0 100644 --- a/Documentation/user/preface.itely +++ b/Documentation/user/preface.itely @@ -1,65 +1,59 @@ +@c -*- coding: utf-8; mode: texinfo; -*- +@c This file is part of lilypond.tely +@ignore + Translation of GIT committish: FILL-IN-HEAD-COMMITTISH -@node Preface -@chapter Preface + When revising a translation, copy the HEAD committish of the + version that you are working on. See TRANSLATION for details. +@end ignore +@c \version "2.11.38" -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 soon decided that MPP was a dead end. After lots of -philosophizing and heated e-mail exchanges Han-Wen started LilyPond in -1996. This time, Jan got sucked into Han-Wen's new project. The rest -is, as they say, history. +@node Preface +@unnumbered Preface -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. We can't -really judge whether the manual is helpful for users, but maybe you can! -Don't hesitate to tell us if you find any part of the manual vague, -unclear or outdated. +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. + +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. +Utrecht/Eindhoven, The Netherlands, July 2002. - -@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 staves (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. - - -@end ignore