Re: transcribe notes

[Graham Percival]

On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 10:58:37PM +0200, Philip Thomas wrote:
> >On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 9:46 PM, Philip Thomas <address@hidden>
> >wrote:
> >> I should mention that I'm no programmer. (And I wouldn't be offended
> >> by a polite "thanks, but no
> >> thanks".)

I'm afraid that my first reaction is "thanks, but no thanks".  See
below.

> >On Tuesday 12 June 2012 at 22:29, Janek Warchoł <mailto:address@hidden> 
> >wrote:>
> >If you want to contribute to LilyPond, chapter "quick start" in
> >Contributors' Guide
> >(http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.15/Documentation/contributor-big-page#quick-
> >start)
> >tells you how to setup your working environment.

Be warned that the CG is not actively maintained.  I estimate that
approximately 20% of the advice in the CG misleading, and 10% of
the advice is harmful.  It was not intended to be harmful, of
course, but when policies and the technical layout of lilypond
development change but the CG is not updated, the end result can
be worse than giving no advice at all.

I cannot in good conscience encourage anybody to become involved
with lilypond development at the present time unless they have a
mentor.  It would, of course, be really nice if somebody like
Janek offered to mentor you on this.

> I'll look at the CG. But would an expanded cheatsheet would be
> useful? And is it the kind of thing that a comparative beginner
> would be likely to be able to make a useful contribution on?
> Just a quick reaction is all I'm seeking, not a considered
> judgment.

At the present time, I doubt that many beginners notice the
cheatsheet at all, expanded or not.  However, if the cheatsheet
were improved, we could give it greater prominence, all the way to
including it on the main doc page on the website (probably under
the "regular use" heading).  I could see that being very useful,
actually.

The more I think about it, the more this seems like an excellent
way to get into lilypond development.  But I still cannot honestly
encourage you to do this unless you have an experienced mentor.

- Graham