Re: Absolute Beginners

[Bonnie Rogers]

Manuel wrote:
> John Mandreau:
> > My offer to integrate your work into the official tutorial was
> > premature, as it is not clear now how to integrate it (or add it) into
> > the official docs, that's why I second Joe and Graham's suggestion: the
> > ideal current hosting of your work is certainly a wiki, for example
> > http://lilypondwiki.tuxfamily.org/ If you need help for adding your work
> > there, just ask me ;-)
>
> Yes, I have a problem with this, that I still don't know it or 
> understand the wiki at all, so I wouldn't know what I'm talking about. I 
> beg to have time to "have a look at it" but taking into consideration 
> that I am short of time - aren't we all... - and so I have set myself 
> the task of writing the Absolute Beginners' guide in the first place, or 
> second actually, since I am preparing a didactical work of a certain 
> size. This, of course, on top of other things. Let me concentrate in the 
> writing, maybe when Daniel goes ahead with his posting of the Spanish 
> version I'll learn a thing or two.
>
> Alternatively, it could be posted with the documentation as "Absolute 
> Beginners' Guide" in difference to the "General Tutorial" and see what 
> happens.
>
> Manuel

Hi Manuel,

I felt the same way you did about the wiki, but I took a few minutes 
late last night to check it out, and I found that it really is quite 
friendly and easy to use. I may not have figured out everything, but I 
had no trouble setting up an "account" for myself and doing a couple of 
minor edits. The wiki is new and hasn't been used much, but I can see 
its potential for us Lilypond users. There is a section called 
"Tutorials" all ready for you to insert your Mac OS version of Chapter 1 
of the "Absolute Beginner's Guide."  If the powers-that-be agree, I 
really think the wiki would be a better place to improve and expand 
Lilypond help for beginners on various operating systems.  I might have 
some suggestions  for a Windows version of the "Absolute Beginner's 
Guide", but I know that what I would have to say would be of no interest 
to the main Lilypond users list except perhaps to give the Linux people 
a chance to snicker.

I would hope that if we succeed in developing a good set of "Absolute 
Beginner's" information, the main users list and the main Lilypond 
documentation would cross-reference to it as appropriate.

I also think that it would make better sense to use the wiki for 
discussions of pedagogy and word usage in various languages. My own 
academic training was in literature and in education rather than in 
musicology, so I personally find these topics fascinating, even when the 
language in question is Spanish, which I have never had an opportunity 
to learn, but I suspect that many readers of the main list do not feel 
the way I do and may resent the way language discussions are swelling 
the volume of emails. On the wiki, one could set up separate discussions 
of pedagogy, English musical terms, Spanish musical terms, German 
musical terms, French musical terms, and so forth. Wiki users can choose 
which of these discussions to follow instead of having to sort through 
everything.

If M. Mandreau agrees, perhaps he could help get the process started by 
copying some of these threads from the main list into the wiki, and then 
those of us who are interested could try it and see how we like it. If 
you gave permission, Manuel, maybe M. Mandreau would insert a copy of 
the "Absolute Beginners Guide" into the wiki for you. Editing the wiki 
was easy, but so far I didn't figure out how a user would go about 
inserting something completely new.

Best wishes for the New Year to all!
Bonnie