Re: Testers wanted

[Michael Hendry]

> On 13 Jul 2021, at 21:54, Knut Petersen <Knut_Petersen@t-online.de> wrote:
> 
> Hi everybody,
> 
> below you find links to four lilypond installers. These installers contain 
> LilyPond version git ee4513cb238cc (2.23.4) plus an additional patch that 
> implements a new backend based on cairo. All installers were built with a 
> modified version of GUB. Cairo 1.16.0 with Pixman 0.40 are used to produce  
> the output files.
> 
> Mac OS X 10.4–10.14, Intel x86 CPU, 32 bit 
> 
> Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
> 
> GNU/Linux x86, 32 bit
> 
> GNU/Linux 64, 64 bit
> 
> I tested the Linux installers, but I own neither a Windows nor a Mac OS X 
> system. It would be nice if some people could test the installers and the 
> lilypond system they provide. I'm especially interested in answers to the 
> following questions: 
> 
>       • Does installation work on your system?
>       • Does the cairo backend produce valid output?
>       • Is font handling ok? Also for asian fonts?
>       • Don't forget to include a short description of your system in 
> success/failure/error reports
>    
> How to test:    
> 
> Select the desired output formats by any combination of the '--pdf', '--ps', 
> '--png' and '--svg' command line options and add -dbackend=cairo'. The 
> '--svg' option must precede  the '-dbackend=cairo' option. 
> 
> If the cairo backend is selected lilypond produces output files with 
> cairo.ps, cairo.pdf, cairo.png and cairo.svg extensions.
> 
>   
> Features:
> 
>       • Faster than all other backends (at least on linux systems)
>       • Files that fail with the svg backend produce valid svg output with 
> the cairo backend.
>       • You can produce all output files in one run of lilypond
> 
> Known problems / limitations:
> 
>       • The cairo backend is _experimental_ code.
>       • Only setting of standard PDF metadata tags is supported ('Author', 
> 'Title', 'Subject', 'Keywords' and 'Creator'). 'Creation Time' and 'PDF 
> Producer' are set automatically.
>       • A lot of seldom used pdf features are not supported (e.g. embedding 
> the lilypond source file into the pdf document). There is also no support for 
> cropping, clipping, and all features that depend on ghostscripts extensions 
> of the postscript language (gs-nevern-embed-fonts, music-font-encodings, etc 
> ...)
>       • Internal page hyperlinks: If page is a forward reference (a link to a 
> page that has not been generated yet) cairo silently fails to generate 
> correct hyperlink. As this behaviour is not documented I tend to believe that 
> it is a cairo 1.16 bug, but I have to verify that assumption.
>       • SVG files produced by the cairo backend are bigger than SVG files 
> produced by the svg backend.
>       • PNG: -dresolution=dpi works, but I do not care about other parameters 
> for now. A rgba with transparent background and 8 bits per channel is 
> generated.
> Knut
> 
> 
> 
> 

I’m currently using a late-2012 27” iMac with macOS Catalina 10.15.7, but this 
can’t be upgraded to macOS Big Sur, and a recent whiff of overheated 
circuit-board when I leant over the back of my monitor prompted me to order a 
replacement which is due to arrive today.

I want to make an orderly transition of all my applications and data to the new 
computer, but would be happy to try a quick installation of lilypond on a 
virgin machine running MacOS 11 if that would help you.

Michael