Re: Volunteering with LilyPond

[Graham Percival]

On Sun, 6 Jan 2008 09:51:13 -0500
Reilly <address@hidden> wrote:

> package. The index often lacks entries for my questions.

This is, fortunately, the easiest thing to fix.

In the docs, index entries are made in the relevant section.  So
for example, in the "Ambitus" section, we might have something
like

@cindex ambitus
@cindex Showing the range of pitches


Adding more entries is extremely easy, *if* we have specific
suggestions.  I'm willing to bet that I can add a new entry within
30 seconds of getting an email.  ;)

Want to play?  Here's the rules:
- send me an email with "index" in the subject.
- the format is like this:
SECTION TITLE
INDEX TEXT 1
INDEX TEXT 2
...

for example:
-----
Easy notation note heads
Showing note names
Printing note names
Beginners, showing note names

Instrument transpositions
transposing
moving music up or down
printing music in different keys
these index entries are getting silly
but they illustrate the point
---

You can add as many entries as you like for each section.  The
section names (ie the first piece of text in each "paragraph")
must be written correctly (copy and paste from the docs), because
I'll be searching for that piece of text.


As an experiment, please take 10 minutes (right now? :)  to add
some index terms.  I suspect that this is an easy task that you
could do whenever you have a few spare minutes.

> The entries 
> more often than not, do not address my problems. The coded examples
> are often "too clever" and don't illuminate my ignorance. Obviously 
> everyone wants to make the documentation equal to the programming.
> That is why the GDP is underway.

This is a much harder problem to address.  For now, please read NR
1.1 Pitches  and see if there's any entries that don't address the
issues.

> Collect a team of "Lilypond MUSIC Consultants." This could be the 
> general lilypond-user group or a subset. Volunteer members would
> agree to answer questions. The GDP team should *not* spend time
> researching answers to musical or notational questions IF they can
> find a "local Lilypond user" who knows the answer. For instance, take
> the questions below:

We tried that a bit last Oct / Nov.  There were very few
responses.  However, I've started a list of GDP Consultants;
hopefully if people specifically put their name on this list,
they'll look for "GDP: blah blah" emails and respond more.
(I've already added your name)

> Responding to Graham's public expression of ignorance, I will share
> my own: I am completely baffled by Lilypond code at least half the
> time. I don't understand Scheme. I don't get make-event. I don't

That kind of tweaking is much more advanced than the current
problem -- I still need people who understand the basic lilypond
stuff.

That said, please consider the "checking the LM" job.  You'll
learn a lot more about lilypond (including such tweaks), and we
need people to check it.

Make sure you read the GDP version, *not* the 2.11 version.
 
 
> A general *alert* to the GDP team: music notation is NOT
> standardized.

We are quite aware of this -- and in any case, this is a general
lilypond issues, not a documentation issue.  Fortunately, lilypnod
is extremely flexible and can deal with these situations.  Again,
I recommend checking out the new LM, specifically LM 4 Tweaks.

Cheers,
- Graham