[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Do we really offer the future?
From: |
Kieren MacMillan |
Subject: |
Re: Do we really offer the future? |
Date: |
Mon, 20 Apr 2015 09:40:40 -0400 |
Hi Johan,
> Why should serious businesses use Unix?
> Outcome: they didn’t.
Actually, they do, on quite a large scale: UNIX and UNIX-like servers have a
~68% market share for public servers. And the share of internal (corporate)
servers is not insignificant (though not nearly 2/3, of course).
> Why should serious businesses use LaTeX instead of MSO?
> Outcome: they didn’t.
Depends entirely on which “serious business” you’re talking about. I’m about to
have my sixth number theory paper published by the American Mathematical
Monthly, a “serious business” if there ever was one; they, of course, required
the submission in LaTeX, like all reputable journals. My point is, such
[ultimately rhetorical] questions only make sense in a correct and fairly
narrowly-defined context.
> Why should serious businesses use Linux instead of Windows?
> Outcome: they didn’t.
Here I fully agree with you… and this is the [analogous] battleground where
Lilypond’s make-or-break battles will be won or lost.
> For us, command line driven programming may feel normal
I am completely comfortable with command-line programming. But I *never* use it
with Lilypond: I only use tools (e.g., Frescobaldi, or even the Mac OS X
built-in “Lilypad editor") which abstracts all of that for me.
> it will never become broadly accepted
Totally true, of course — and not necessarily a bad thing. Our willingness to
accept that and give [potential] users what they need to get around without the
command-line will almost single-handedely determine the degree to which
Lilypond successfully penetrates the wider market.
> I did some book productions for a big publisher. I convinced them that I
> would be delivering high-quality camera-ready materials. They didn't care
> how I did it, what tools I used, even though my results looked better than
> theirs.
Unfortunately, that just isn’t the way with music publishers: they almost
universally demand the “source code” (by which they mean Finale or Sibelius
music file), which they then manipulate as they deem necessary.
> Bottom line: Let's have fun the way *we* do it. Let's show the world the
> beautiful scores we make. If people wants to join us, let's welcome them
> and guide them patiently through the learning curve. And enjoy.
To my mind, a better bottom line would be to flatten the learning curve
significantly for [potential] new users without reducing Lily's power,
flexibility, and beautiful output.
Cheers,
Kieren.
________________________________
Kieren MacMillan, composer
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: address@hidden
- Re: Do we really offer the future?, (continued)
Re: Do we really offer the future?, Johan Vromans, 2015/04/20
- Re: Do we really offer the future?,
Kieren MacMillan <=
Re: Do we really offer the future?, Peter Bjuhr, 2015/04/20
Re: Do we really offer the future?, James Harkins, 2015/04/21