Re: Simple OS X Lily previewer in the works

[Joshua Koo]

Hi,

There's already a project for lilypond editing in jEdit, called LilyTool. Its 
in java so I believe its compatible with Mac OS too. And it covers most of the 
features you mentioned, so havnt you tried it yet?

Joshua

-----Original Message-----
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 21:45:20 +0100
From: Nicolas Sceaux <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: Simple OS X Lily previewer in the works
To: Ed Baskerville <address@hidden>
Cc: address@hidden
Message-ID: <address@hidden>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Ed Baskerville <address@hidden> writes:

I've been writing few mails to Richard Koch, the author of TeXShop,
who kindly prepared a test version of TeXShop with simple LilyPond
support: when you edit a .ly file, the LilyPond engine (backend) is
selected, and pressing the "Compose" button launches lilypond and then
the PDF viewer.

Here are the issues with TeXShop:

- the syntax coloring is hard coded, and devoted to LaTeX.

- the log message window shows the output of the compilation, but has
  no support for clicking on error lines (just a "goto error" which
  works well for TeX, but not for LilyPond)

- according to Richard, the point-on-click feature on the PDF output
  is not doable now, as Apple's pdf routines don't currently support
  hyperlinks. But this is not specific to TeXShop, and maybe I didn't
  understand the explanation properly.

- the association between file types (.ly, .tex, etc) and engines is
  hard coded (however this is not complicated).

Given these facts, one may think preferable to start a new project, or
try to send patches, or use JEdit.

To answer your questions:
I would not use it, because I'm an Emacs guy. However, the feature
that I think should be present in a decent LilyPond capable editor are
(in random order):
- sytax coloring
- keyword completion
- help accessible from an input file: when the cursor is on a keyword
  or a property name, a key chord opens the documentation where the
  keyword/property/etc is defined.
- compilation with a key chord
- easy navigation from the compilation window to the input file (when
  errors or warning are encountered). And maybe a little visual sign
  showing which lines have errors or warnings.
- point and click from the PDF output to the input file
- I don't want to bother what file is selected when a compilation is
  launched: there must be a way to easily specify which file is the main
  file (such as a little file list window, with a flag than can be set
  behind the main file).
- template insertion
- input from a MIDI keyboard
- ...
- the lilypond version to use might be settable (in order to switch
between stable and unstable for instance)
- guile REPL for debugging :)

I also happen to like features like transposition on region on notes,
and things like that.

and specifically on Mac OS X:
- native look and feel.

Nicolas
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