easier LilyPond tutorial?

[Han-Wen Nienhuys]

[please forward to appropriate editor development lists]

Hi there!

I have a question for the lily4jEdit developers.

Yesterday Jan & I discussed how we could lower the barrier to start
using LilyPond. One the things we discussed was a better way to start
using LilyPond. Right now, this involves a newbie user

 * having to read the tutorial

 * learning the concept of text-editor, and learning to use it.

 * learning the concept of command-line, and learning to use it.

 * learning about debug-edit-compile

For a typical mac/windows user this is a rough introduction.  We were
wondering whether it was possible to provide something similar to the
Emacs tutorial, where a user is really taken by the hand learning
LilyPond.

Our idea is to have a text-file, which looks like


        This is the lilypond tutorial. Here is a simple fragment of LilyPond

           { c'4 d'8 }

        To compile this fragment,

        - Use the mouse to hover over the fragment,
        - Click the right-mouse button
        - Select "compile music fragment" from the context menu

the text file would be edited in a special mode that detects indented
sections of the text, and adds the appropriate context-menu entry. The
"compile music fragment" would run LilyPond, kill any old PDF viewer,
and start a new viewer.  Of course, users are encouraged to edit the
indented sections on their own, to experiment a bit. We could even
insert some excercises.

In this way, editing & compiling .ly code is tightly integrated with
the tutorial, and a newbie isn't overwhelmed by all the new bits at
the same time.

Of course, the same trick might be applicable to Gedit or Emacs, and
the technical implementation might be optimized. Perhaps it's easier
to mark .ly sections with a special marker which is hidden during
display.

How does this idea sound? Any one willing to take on this task?


-- 

 Han-Wen Nienhuys | address@hidden | http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen