Re: constructive criticism

[Han-Wen Nienhuys]

address@hidden writes:
>I respectfully submit that you are missing the point(s).

ok, point taken.

> (point 3) Sure, some of the appropriate sections are linked to, but unless
> I am an expert in scheme and lilypond internals, putting it all together
> is a very daunting task, full of frustration and tweaks which do nothing.
> The example paragraph says you can use a \translator or \applyoutput, but
> it neither links to sections describing those, nor does it give an example
> how to use either one of them.

True enough, but this is not Lily's shortcoming per se.

Years ago, we hoped that people would pick up on writing or improving
the manual; I can't count the number of times that people have
proposed to write tutorials, setup wikis, rewrite the manual, etc.

Almost none of it happened. Even now the manual explicitly says

        If you are looking for something,
        and you cannot find it by using the index, that is considered a bug.
        In that case, please file a bug report.

(I'm changing "index" to manual in CVS, BTW), yet you write
 
>I have been wondering about how to do that for a long time.  It _seems_
>like a simple thing, so if I'm going to continue to use lilypond, I should
>be able to sometimes figure out a simple thing without resorting to the
>mailing list.  Well, after occasionally searching the manual and pondering
>its contents over a period of months, I finally have it, but...

this is a very commendable attitude, but it doesn't help Lily
improve. If you have looked in vain in the manual, please submit a
bugreport?

> About the new \with syntax:
> 
> Will this work?
>   \new ChoirStaff \with { systemStartDelimiter = #'SystemStartBrace }

Yes.

> How about this?
>   \new GrandStaff \with { \remove Span_bar_engraver }

No, but I think it is an excellent idea, and will implement it.

-- 

 Han-Wen Nienhuys   |   address@hidden   |   http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen