Re: Absolute Beginners

[Manuel]

Graham, I think the present tutorial is an excellent piece of work as  
it is, only unclear in certain parts for beginners like me. It looks  
like it was made by people with deep and systematic knowledge of the  
matter but less didactical experience. I like the idea to try and  
expand "beginners" and see what happens.

I don't understand in which way the first chapter is too long.  
Didactically speaking it is as short as it can be, and you surely  
don't  mean the file size?

To insert patches would seriously compromise the clarity for the  
adresees.

> If you're interested in doing more doc work (say, an hour or two a  
> week; if you'd like to do more that's totally welcome!)

Yes, if I understand you correctly: would you call what I have being  
doing "doc work"?

>  You could easily spend 50 hours working on a complete new tutorial  
> before it was ready to replace the old one.

500 hours would be nearer the mark.

But let me explain: once a beginner understands correctly how the  
program works, he can go ahead and use a reference work, as is  
already contained in the tutorial. Then he is no longer a beginner,  
but a user (both have quite different support needs). This process I  
find not easy to do with the tutorial if you don't know anything  
about command-line programs, for instance.

One didactically-oriented beginners guide can coexist with the  
reference-oriented tutorial, I think.

A guide for total beginners might even take a load off the support  
guys, but could also encourage more people to use LilyPond. Some of  
my colleagues wouldn't mind paying hundreds of euros for a commercial  
program if it is easier to use, which it isn't, but it looks easy  
because of the graphic interface toys.

Manuel