Re: bounties

[David Kastrup]

Kieren MacMillan <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi David,
>
>>> As for 'best tool for the job', what job are you referring to?  Are
>>> you sure it is the job that everyone else is trying to do?
>> 
>> Getting the music from your head to paper.
>
> Not that my opinion matters here, but...  :)
>
> That is the *least* important part of Lilypond for me -- in fact, I
> couldn't care any less about it, from the point of view of my usage.

But when trying to hook people on a large scale on Lilypond, you'll find
that there is a reason Lilypond was your tool of choice, and not theirs.

> I know this is not the way everyone uses Lilypond, and I love
> open-source software precisely for the reason that everyone has an
> equal kick at the can, even if it means that "too many" resources are
> going to something I don't (and likely won't ever) need. The more
> popular Lilypond is, the better chance I probably have of getting my
> Lilypond needs fulfilled. However, for me personally -- i.e., how I
> will spend my assistance and sponsorship time, money, and effort --
> trying to make Lilypond a better *composing* tool is a total
> non-issue, whereas fixing the innumerable *engraving* problems
> remaining to be solved is everything.

preview-latex has changed my needs for pen and paper for the creation of
quite a bit of mathematical content.  At some point of time, a tool
might change your workflow.

Most really tough work still happens on paper for me.  But good tools
can shift the easier work.

>> Well, I hate doing serious work outside of Emacs.
>
> I don't like Emacs: I've tried it for a number of things -- Lilypond,
> LaTeX (number theory papers), etc. -- and found that it got in my way
> constantly. Different strokes...

My father is 76, and a theoretical physicist.  preview-latex made Emacs
his preferred editor.  It is not rare for him to produce papers with
1000+ formulae.

Emacs basically is an editing platform.  If you can't warm to its
generic feature set, for a particular application space there might
exist modes and tools that make a decisive difference in usability.

-- 
David Kastrup