Re: future features

[Graham Percival]

On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 11:53:48 +0000
David Bobroff <address@hidden> wrote:
> I've recently converted some Finale ETF files using etf2ly.  As
-snip-
> empty bars.  While this was slightly tedious to repair it was a couple
> of orders of magnitude better than keying in the entire file by hand.

Really?  I guess it depends on how long the file is, but I'd prefer to
enter everything by hand.  If nothing else, it helps you to practice
your Lilypond and typing skills!  :)

> Question: Are there plans for more complete conversion of ETF files in
> the near future (by version 2.0 for example)?

I really can't speak for the non-doc devel stuff -- in fact, I can't even
really speak about the doc devel stuff -- but I doubt it.  I expect that
Lilypond devel people would rather spend effort towards supporting musicxml
and other Free music score formats.

> COLOR -- I checked the achives and saw some discussion about color
> support in LilyPond.  One topic was "Vienna" style scores with blue
> repeat bars and red Segnos (this I had never heard of).  The other had
> to do with Gregorian chant notation with red staff lines etc.  This is
> more the kind of color support I'm curious about.  A friend of mine has

If you just want a few coloured items, you could always just load the
postscript output into a graphics program and colour them manually.  :)

Again, I don't think that this is/will be a priority.

> With the advances being made on the neumes in LilyPond it may be that it
> will be ready for "prime time" in the near future.  With the addition of

I think that Lilypond is already ready for "prime time" -- I've used it
for two years in a university music composition course, thereby saving
me $300 (or whatever the "cheap" student version of Finale or Sibelius
costs).  And some people have exclaimed "wow!  How did you get Finale to
make music that looks so good?"

> color capabilities (for staff lines, early flat and natural signs,
> lyrics, etc.) it would be a boon to those working on such a project.

Most (as in "way over 99%") music is printed as black-and-white.  I can
think of a _few_ beginner music books which have colour, but not many.
Why do you want colour so much?

Cheers,
- Graham