Imported Upstream version 2.14.2

[lilypond.git] / Documentation / learning / preface.itely

diff --git a/Documentation/learning/preface.itely b/Documentation/learning/preface.itely
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..0cdf383
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/learning/preface.itely
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+@c -*- coding: utf-8; mode: texinfo; -*-
+
+@ignore
+    Translation of GIT committish: FILL-IN-HEAD-COMMITTISH
+
+    When revising a translation, copy the HEAD committish of the
+    version that you are working on.  For details, see the Contributors'
+    Guide, node Updating translation committishes..
+@end ignore
+
+@c \version "2.14.0"
+
+@node Preface
+@unnumbered Preface
+
+
+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/Eindhoven, The Netherlands, July 2002.
+