Re: problems with learning lilypond

[David Fedoruk]

Regarding those questions I didn't know how to word in an
understandable way; my reasons for just simply letting them sit
unasked is that in my experience, it means I've missed something along
the way to the problem.

So just hanging tough and letting the problem sit while I go on with
soe other portion of my project usually results in either finding the
answer to my problem along the way as I proceed, or finding a way to
ask the question.

There are the times when just going back and making sure that every
single render error I get is solved no matter how small, ends up
making the original problem go away. At a time like this, I've very
glad I didn't rush to the list and try to ask that question.

It turns out that no matter how small or insignificant you think the
error is, it has repercussions down the road for something else. So
rather than speaking or asking in haste, I choose to keep working
ahead by going back and making sure that all the little problems I
think are of insignificant are taken care of.

Regarding jazz chords, I can only speak from what I see on this list.
Others have greater insight into the whole Lilypond development
process, so I am not surprised that it was far more complex than what
I saw here.

I knew these were more complex problems than a simple lead sheet since
I've talked with guitar players and compared the exact notes they play
with the ones I know to be associated with any one chord. I learned a
whole lot from that conversation, probably more than the guitar player
thought that I learned. Again, it was a matter of perspective; how
things look from where  you are standing at the moment.

As it happened, the right people spoke up at the right time. They said
things in a concise way where I would have attempted (and probably
failed) to say the same thing in a most awkward and round about way.
There is a great deal of expertise in this group, it doesn't all come
from progammers, but from everyone who uses Lilypond, it comes from
everyone who uses Lillypond.

Also, remember that my time zone is GMT -8, so I am one of the last
people on this list to see anything posted. That affects how I see
things or how I am seen to respond to things.

Scheme: I know beyond a doubt that scheme is important. Understanding
it can make your work much easier and a lack of understanding can make
life with Lilypond a nightmare. I will eventually understand what I
need to know about scheme, it just will not be this very moment

If I had to say one thing that is wrong with documentation is that the
people doing the documentation assume to much about the state of the
reader's knowledge. What may seem obvious to you, may not be to the
person reading your documentation.

Unix/Linux man files are filled with some of the most  information
recorded anywhere. However, their terse style makes them difficult for
many new users to understand.

Lilypond's documentation used to be very similar in style. This is no
longer the case, it has come a long way from that terse man file style
to where it is now. So kudos to those who have contributed, your work
is most appreciated.

Also, to those who have contributed examples to the unofficial
snippets repository, your contributions are high on my list of
valuable contributions  to Lilypond documentation. Many times I   have
found answers to my questions  in the snippets respository when I had
about given up. For me, a picture is worth a several million words.

To sum up, thanks to everyone who has contributed even in a small way
to Lilypond. Lilypond is as impoirtant to me as Open Office  and
Firefox combined. This is  not hyperboly, I'd be lost without it.

cheers,
davidf