Supporting my work on LilyPond financially.

[David Kastrup]

As many of you already know, I have been working on LilyPond (and
nothing else) for quite a while, and since I asked for financial support
in March
<URL:http://news.lilynet.net/?The-LilyPond-Report-24#an_urgent_request_for_funding>
(read the following LilyPond reports for information on the results),
other developers and users pitched in and provided me with an average of
about €800 per month which has allowed me to more or less break even on
costs of living while being able to afford health insurance.  However,
insurance costs are increasing, and any unscheduled expenses require
tapping into the diminuishing reserves from a previous job.

Few contributors are responsible for a rather large percentage of the
means necessary to keep me afloat while working on LilyPond, and it
would be nice to not rely on so few for a large part of the financial
load.  Not everybody reads the LilyPond Reports (though you really
should give them a whirl), so let me ask for your patience mentioning
this issue on the mailing lists.

The details can be read up in the mentioned LilyPond report article.  On
top of the work sketched out there, I pitch in for testing, patch
organization, as expert in Git and various programming languages, and
have tracked down or helped tracking down bugs in the C++ compiler
affecting LilyPond.  I have recently taken custody of the 2.16 release
process, and am frequently helping out or discussing things on developer
and user lists of LilyPond.  In a week, I'll be hosting a developer
meeting at my place.  I have been a driving force behind a number of
changes in the 2.15 development branch of LilyPond.

In terms of programming work, when I am not hunting down bugs, my focus
has mostly been on user and/or programming interface work, trying to
lower the barrier of entry for getting useful programming work done and
telling LilyPond what you want or need.

So supporting my work on LilyPond definitely does support LilyPond, even
though I am just working as a member of a volunteer team, having not
scratched more than the surface of several significant parts of LilyPond
like the details of the typesetting backend, the build system, the web
presence, the multitude of translations, the support scripts and other
important parts in the _huge_ project that is LilyPond.  Check out
<URL:http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/lilypond.git/log/> for a breakdown
of who does what in LilyPond land.  It is actually not the whole picture
since significant code and work passes through the mailing lists and
private channels as well, but it is a good start.

Recent headlines in the news have been about Avid, the owner of the
proprietary music typesetting software Sibelius, dissolving their UK
development offices and dismissing the programming team including
Sibelius' original creators.  Attempts by them to repurchase the rights
to the software were unsuccessful.  Laying off know-how of that calibre
would not seem to make sense unless one plans to forego any further
serious development.  Both users and developers having heavily invested
in this software before, in terms of money, work, and existing scores,
don't have the right to make its development continue.  Disconcerting,
to say the least.

This kind of lockout can't happen with LilyPond.  As free software, it
will remain available to the public.  As long as somebody is willing to
work on it or support such work, it will not fall into stagnation or bit
rot.  That's a guarantee that you don't get by paying proprietary
licensing fees.

"bit rot" is still an issue while LilyPond gets developed further, and
older scores may have problems running through newer versions of
LilyPond even after running convert-ly.  We have discussions and plans
for minimizing that problem, and since LilyPond is text-based, it is
quite unlikely that a score needs retyping rather than judicious
changes.  But as long as a thriving community is working with and on it,
you can find help if required, in stark contrast to proprietary software
and formats where you are forced to rely on the manufacturer's goodwill.

At any case: if you care for the added value I provide to LilyPond
development while being on the community's payroll, you can use Paypal
on this mail address for supporting me, or you can ask for my banking
details (within the Euro zone, bank transfers to a German account are
quite less expensive in fees than most other options).

This is not an "official LilyPond fund": we discussed the possibilities,
but as long as there are no reasonable perspectives for surplus amounts,
setting the legal and organizational structures and guarantees up for
that seems pointless: what better guarantee can there be than a large
amount of already existing code?

If you prefer supporting LilyPond by other means: that's perfectly fine.
Just don't forget doing it: LilyPond certainly has more work on its
plate than just a single person could hope doing.  And if you know other
people who might be interested in supporting LilyPond through any means:
spread the word.

Thanks for caring, and thanks to all those who made it possible for me
to stay with LilyPond, and to those who make it enjoyable working on
LilyPond.  When I did my sales pitch in March, it was with the
expectation that I'd stop working on LilyPond within few months, no
longer being able to afford it.  I am happy to have been proven wrong so
far.

-- 
David Kastrup