Re: GSoC 2016

[Paul Morris]

> On Jan 26, 2016, at 5:24 AM, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
>> So my question could be rephrased: Would it be acceptable to suggest a
>> GSoC project if such an external library is *not* going to be included
>> in LilyPond directly? With regard to the project I'm convinced that
>> this would work out in the context/frame of a GSoC project.
> 
> I think so.  Now part of the GSoC idea (which has so far not worked very
> convincingly for us) is to make a student build long-term ties into a
> project.  For this to work, it would be a good idea if the student had
> an actual long-term interest in scholarly editions rather than just some
> programming project.

Sounds good.  So ScholarLY can be added as a project to the ideas list with Urs 
as a mentor.  

Did I understand correctly that something like a "CTAN for LilyPond” (CLAN) is 
already in the works and so wouldn’t be good for a GSoC project?

Just thinking aloud…  what about a project focused on improving the Edition 
Engraver and possibly integrating it into LilyPond?  Or is it better for it to 
also be one of these external packages / libraries?  

I assume that the MusicXML export/import would still be a valid project since 
there is more to do there, right?

While we’re at it, one thing I’ve thought about is simplifying vertical spacing 
changes.  Basically something like this[1] but possibly integrated into 
LilyPond.  One idea is that alongside padding, minimum-distance, and 
basic-distance, there could be a property like “scaling”.  Then the properties 
padding, minimum-distance, and basic-distance would each be multiplied by 
“scaling” before being put into effect.  So you could do things like:

\new Staff \with {
  \override VerticalAxisGroup.default-staff-staff-spacing.scaling = #1.2
} { … }

\paper {
  system-system-spacing.scaling = #0.9
}

That gives the user one property to change to simply increase or decrease 
vertical spacing without having to look up default values (or guess) or have to 
decide whether to change padding, minimum-distance, or basic-distance or some 
combination of them.

Thoughts on this idea in general?  And/or as a GSoC project?  (I’m not sure 
that it would be enough or well-suited for GSoC.)

[1] 
https://github.com/openlilylib/openlilylib/tree/master/notation-snippets/scale-vertical-spacing

-Paul