Re: how apt are comparisons to TeX/LaTeX?

[Kevin Barry]

So the first question is: how much of lilypond's goals and design are based on TeX/LaTeX?

This is just my understanding, but I believe LilyPond is intended to be a music-engraving equivalent of LaTeX. IIRC it actually began life as a LaTeX package (MusicTeX? or was it another one?).

 

Along these lines comes a series of other questions:
Is "what you see is what you mean" input is the goal?

Yes I think so. I think the goal is to produce as close to optimal printed output as possible with as little manual editing as possible. I think separating content and presentation is also a goal.

 

Is there the same TeX=detailed typesetting (engraving), LaTeX=hides users
from the details of those details (mostly) concept for Lilypond?
[I believe that this is one way to roughly characterize the difference]

Not really. I think LilyPond contains a little of both, but is more like LaTeX than plain TeX.

 

Just my two cents,

Kevin