Re: how apt are comparisons to TeX/LaTeX?

[Urs Liska]

Am 27.04.2015 um 12:46 schrieb Kevin Barry:

So the first question is: how much of lilypond's goals and design are based on TeX/LaTeX?

This is just my understanding, but I believe LilyPond is intended to be a music-engraving equivalent of LaTeX. IIRC it actually began life as a LaTeX package (MusicTeX? or was it another one?).

I'm not sure about the package thing (althought I doubt it) but initially LilyPond's actual grob placement was done by TeX. So I'd say initially LilyPond was like a LaTeX layer around TeX.

 

Along these lines comes a series of other questions:
Is "what you see is what you mean" input is the goal?

Yes I think so. I think the goal is to produce as close to optimal printed output as possible with as little manual editing as possible. I think separating content and presentation is also a goal.

I think this isn't really correct. WYSIWYM is used for tools like LyX that give you a rough approximation of the final output so you can see "what you mean". This is really not what LilyPond is about. I think Denemo is offering just that, a preliminary visual representation while you enter the music and that you can at any time make "perfect" by calling LilyPond upon the input file.

Urs

 

Is there the same TeX=detailed typesetting (engraving), LaTeX=hides users
from the details of those details (mostly) concept for Lilypond?
[I believe that this is one way to roughly characterize the difference]

Not really. I think LilyPond contains a little of both, but is more like LaTeX than plain TeX.

 

Just my two cents,

Kevin

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