Re: Leaving: "I can't help"

[Graham Percival]

On Wed, 2 Jan 2008 09:50:01 -0500
Kieren MacMillan <address@hidden> wrote:

> I'm a professional composer.
> I use Lilypond (nearly) every day.
> I don't actively (i.e., visibly) contribute to Lilypond code or  
> documentation... and may not in the near future, despite attempts to  
> guilt me into doing so.  ;-)

You know my instant hostile reaction to anybody making demands of
lilypond volunteers.  And I am quite aware that I'm being
hypocritical in trying to guilt advanced users into contributing
to the docs.

So it is with the greatest of reluctance that I continue such
attempts.


We currently have *zero* active helpers in GDP who are working on
the contents of the docs.  The presentation is coming along
nicely.  We have people fixing the English grammar, rearranging
the material so that things are easier to find, etc.  But the
actual contents?  Nope.

I've had questions from GDP helpers about various parts of the
docs, and my reply has almost always been "I don't know, try
experimenting or asking on the mailist".  Sometimes they do so,
and sometimes they get an answer.  Sometimes they don't, so we
need to guess.  On some occasions, I've ended up saying "well, I
don't know whether it's foo or bar.  Let's just stick foo in the
docs, and if it's wrong, somebody will complain about it".

Making wild guesses and hoping for future complaints is not the
ideal way to write docs.  It sucks for users who encounter these
problems in the future.  It sucks for doc writers, because they
feel stupid and useless.  It sucks for me, because I feel that I'm
letting down the volunteers I'm supposed to be supporting.


Concrete example?  Well, there's "falls and doits" in Expressive
marks.  I have no clue what these are.  Something for jazz
singers?  Saxophonists?  Maybe they're used in Baroque notation?
Or a special mark for accordion players?
Is the current doc section acceptable?  I have no clue.  Judging
from the picture and the input, \bendAfter does *something*.  But
I don't know what it's doing, nor what else the doc should say
here.  Maybe people who use \bendAfter would also want a link to
the ancient notation articulations?  Or the vocal "aligning
syllabels" ?  I have no clue.

In a few months, if GDP is still progressing, we'll be tackling NR
2 specific notation.  These problems will be even worse then.  I
honestly think that I've /never/ seen any classical guitar sheet
music.  How am I supposed to supervise work on this section?  I
can check submissions for accordance to the doc policy, but I
certainly can't judge the *contents* of those docs.

Now what about the poor GDP helper who gets assigned work on
Guitar music?  I don't think that any of the current helpers play
guitar, so they'll have the same problems that I face.

(nothing personal against guitars... I know virtually nothing
about everything else in NR 2, including vocal music)



Many of the volunteers begin their emails saying "I know almost
nothing about music notation, but I'm willing to help if you think
I can without embarassing myself".  I am completely baffled about
all these volunteers -- I mean, I'm incredibly happy about
them, but baffled nevertheless.  Why do so many people want to
help after reading nothing more than the lilypond tutorial?  And
conversely, why is it that nobody who actually *is* familiar with
music notation and lilypond volunteers?

If I had an advanced lilypond user offer to help, I wouldn't ask
them to work on the texinfo files directly (unless they
particularly wanted to).  I just want somebody who can review the
material in detail, answer questions from other helpers, etc.
Maybe create a few small lilypond examples to replace (or add to)
existing examples.

- Graham