Re: Learning Lilypond, comments invited - part 2

[David Kastrup]

Colin Tennyson <address@hidden> writes:

> To use another analogy: our choir conductor sometimes asks in mild
> exasparation: "Sing _something_  , never mind you're not sure. If you sing
> the wrong note I can correct it, but if you don't sing at all I'm dead in
> the water." 
>
> So, in asking questions here on this forum I allow myself to err on the side
> of pushing. 
>
> (I'm not a programmer, but as you can tell from the terminology I picked up
> I have been reading up on general principles of programming.)
>
>
> In order to learn the LilyPond environment, I feel I need to know the
> concepts that have guided how Lilypond is implemented.

Contexts, properties and engravers are described in the Usage manual.
Be sure to read the latest version as there have been quite a few
improvements.

> Why do I see side by side two keywords for setting properties: \set
> and \override.

That is explained in the manual.

> I have seen environments where every property that is by nature ON/OFF is
> controlled with a boolean variable. That is straightforward, that helps to
> make the enviroment learnable.
>
> Why do I see side by side several ways of toggling ON/OFF?
> I see "\hide"  "\undo \hide"

If you prefer, you can override the transparency property of a grob with
#t and #f.  \hide is just a convenience function.

> I see "consists" "\remove"
> I see "##t" and  "##f"
>
> I wonder, how did the development of LilyPond end up with the syntax and
> keyword set that it now has?

The change log files are available, and so are the archives of the
developer and user lists.

-- 
David Kastrup