Re: Appreciation / Financial support

[Henning Hraban Ramm]

Am 2012-05-30 um 21:09 schrieb Marc Hohl:

> > > Lua does not have such a large user base.  More like a fan base.
> > > Python, in contrast, is solidly mainstream.
> >
> > I dream of a chimera of LuaTeX and LilyPond, that would be ideal  
> > for my not-only-musical typesetting needs...
> +1
>
> (Well I know: patches were thoughtfully considered)
>
> Despite the fact that lilypond-book is available, I try to include  
> all textual information in my .ly files.
> if only the line breaking algorithm of TeX were available as a  
> library ... ;-)

Not only the line breaking - e.g. LuaTeX has the best OpenType support  
of *all* programs, due to the OrientalTeX project (that enabled LuaTeX/ 
ConTeXt to do Qur’an typography, see e.g. http://river-valley.tv/oriental-tex-culturally-authentic-typesetting-of-the-quran/ 
 = http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb31-2/tb98hamid.pdf). You can’t do the  
same with any other layout/typesetting program, as far as I understand.

I don’t believe a "LilyLuaTeX" (let’s call it "quacking at the  
moon" ;-) will ever see the light of day (or night), even if I see big  
potential in an integrated typesetting system. I guess there’s some  
duplicate functionality (e.g. font handling and algorithms for  
"beauty") that could profit from synergies. Like ConTeXt can take XML  
or something like Markdown as a simplified/specialized input syntax,  
that beast could even be made to process MusicXML as an alternative to  
native LP syntax.

ConTeXt MkIV is mostly switching TeX programming by Lua programming,  
and thus the code becomes much more readable and much more details  
become controllable by user code. I guess that’s similar to Karsten’s  
way of moving more of LilyPond’s code to Scheme.

I can’t tell if the functional aspect of Scheme gives so much  
advantage over the steep learning curve. I myself love Python but can  
see why it’s a bad choice for an application scripting language; I see  
what Lua does for TeX, even if I can’t and won’t use most of the cool  
new shiny stuff, like I won’t ever need much of LilyPond’s great  
features and scriptability.

But I guess my quacking is void, since I can’t help that happen, both  
my abilities and my time are too limited. But we are allowed to dream,  
aren’t we? ;-)

Greetlings, Hraban