Re: developers developers developers

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi Graham (et al),

> For the record, **I have never recommended that somebody use
> lilypond**.  When meeting a technically-oriented composer

Ah! That's your problem right there... I recommend Lilypond all the  
time, but primarily to AESTHETICALLY-oriented composers.

In my experience, most composers under the age of 30 are sufficiently  
"technically-oriented" to handle Lilypond syntax (ex: of the 20  
composers in my third Colorado seminar, all but 3 claimed to have had  
"computer programming experience", and 2 of the 3 that didn't were  
graduate students older than 30). IM(NS)HO, the *only* reason to  
enthusiastically recommend Lilypond is its output: for 95+% of the  
population, it's an inferior engraving experience (i.e., high  
learning curve and no GUI), but the difference in output quality is  
so great that it justifies my fevered evangelism.

> That's why I cringe a bit whenever I hear people proudly announcing
> that they advertized lilypond to meeting X or conference Y.

Not only does announcing Lilypond to meeting X or conference Y (which  
I do all the time) help spread the word — ex: of the 20 Colorado  
composers, only 1 had even heard of Lilypond prior to the session —  
but there's a chance [slim, I admit] that one or more of those  
attendees might have the skill and interest to improve Lilypond.

> - approximately 300 *known* bugs that produce garbage output that
>   nobody's working on.  (there's about 10-15 bugs that people are
>   working on)

I'd love to see CodaMusic's bug list.  ;)

> The new website is better than the old one;
> I don't think we need any more advocacy than that.

-1
Not only do I think that the new website [design] is not particularly  
attractive — which, to most visitors, means the product must be  
similarly unattractive — but *no* product survives on a website  
alone, no matter how sexy the CSS.

> We really could use 5-10 times the amount of developer-effort if  
> we're serious about it.

+1 (or maybe +2).
Kieren.