Re: Absolute Beginners

[Graham Percival]

John Mandereau wrote:
> Le mercredi 27 décembre 2006 à 17:13 +0100, Manuel a écrit :
> > It looks  
> > like it was made by people with deep and systematic knowledge of the  
> > matter but less didactical experience.

Please don't be insulting.  The problem is not my pedagogical skills; 
it's my lack of time.

(For those less familiar with English, "didactical" and "pedagogical" 
both mean "teaching".)


> - in "Running LilyPond for the first time", there isn't enough details
> about how to run LilyPond, which differs depending on the platform.

That section hasn't been updated since GUB was created.  I don't use the 
GUI, so I'll add this to my list of odd jobs.

> - in "First steps", there isn't enough emphasis on syntax correctness:
> many Lily newbies are certainly not programmers, or even haven't learnt
> any programming language.

It's already on my list of odd jobs.

> > 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?
>
> Graham cezrtainly means the chapter should be splitted into several
> sections, just like the current Lily HTML docs (one small section per
> page).

Yes.

> > To insert patches would seriously compromise the clarity for the  
> > adresees.
>
> What do you mean? Aren't patches the best way to see changes?

Manuel, do a google search for "patch" and "diff".  They're programming 
terms for the preferred way to transfer changes to text files.

> > One didactically-oriented beginners guide can coexist with the  
> > reference-oriented tutorial, I think.
>
> I'm against having two tutorials: a reference-oriented tutorial is no
> longer a tutorial, and there is already a reference manual.  There are
> already enough sources of information to make beginners lost.

Exactly.

> I'd vote for Graham's proposal #2: splitting your work into small
> sections and merging them into the tutorial.

Given his more recent email, it seems he isn't fond of this idea.  I'll 
do #3.


Manuel, I second Joe's suggestion that you add your tutorial to the 
wiki.  I don't understand what your objection to it is; given everything 
I've seen and heard about your ideas for this project and your technical 
ability, a wiki would be perfect.


Cheers,
- Graham