Re: Lilypond code/feature freeze for 2.12

[Graham Percival]

On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 10:56:47 +0200
"Valentin Villenave" <address@hidden> wrote:

> Rune was a computer programmer, a musician and a valued
> contributor to LilyPond.   He had been enthusiastically involved
> in the project for the past six years, and he will be missed among
> our community.

That sounds fine.

> As for the quick changelog, the new spacing algorithm is certainly the
> most impressive new feature, but couldn't we
> - mention a few other things,

We have to draw the line somewhere.  I initially wrote up stuff
about 6-8 new features (such as harp pedals and whatnot), but then
realized that it was overboard.

Let me put it this way: when you read an announcement of a new
release in some other software (say, audacity or freeciv), how
much do you want to read?  My guess is less than a page of text.
The current release is two pages.  It definitely shouldn't be
longer.

> - or at least bring up a number such as "this release brings 500 new
> features"

WTM does "X new features" mean?  I mean, is vertical collision
avoidance one "feature", and pointAndClick{On/Off} another
"feature"?  This is a completely vacuous phrase.

> - and possibly mention the fact that we have changed (simplified) the
> syntax quite a bit?

Again, I had that initially, but removed it due to length
considerations.  The syntax changes for every new release, and
it's listed in the NEWS, so I think we're covered.

Yes, we'll get 5-10 people complaining on -user that "X doesn't
work any more" or "I think there's a bug", but we'd get that
number of complaints no matter *how* we warn people.

It might be good to prepare a "STFU newb and read the News" page
on the wiki, though.  That way you can just paste the link to
there, instead of wasting time writing paragraphs and paragraphs
of helpful text for each frequently asked question like you
normally do.

> Having a paragraph about new translations would be good, but I am in
> no place to write it. John, you've tracked this better than me, could
> you write one or two lines about the new website/docs/program
> translations?

Sounds good.  John, send it to Valentin; Valentin, send it to
Trevor.  I no longer have the actual release-notes.txt file, so
make sure you don't lose your copy.

Cheers,
- Graham