Re: The search for an API

[Carl Sorensen]

From: "Felix D." <address@hidden>
Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at 3:42 PM
To: <address@hidden>
Subject: The search for an API

 

Hello Lilypond-Fans,

 

I have a question: Does Lilypond have an API that can be simply called from other programs to render some markup (stored as a string) into a SVG file?

 

We want to use Lilypond in an Unity app/game, wich will be used by many musicians and thus requires some decent staff rendering. We basically program in C#, but there is an easy bridge to interface with C/C++ libraries. So calling an API should not be a huge problem, but does it even exist and is documented somewhere?

 

I asked in the IRC a few hors ago, and received a brief "No, it doesn't exist". Bit is that really the abrupt end of the story, or is there some other possibility to call Lilypond from an external program?

 

Lilypond does not have an API.

 

It is possible to call LilyPond from an external program using a shell command, because LilyPond has a command-line interface.

 

Look at the Lilypond Usage manual for information on command-line options. http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/usage/command_002dline-usage

 

It will produce an svg file that you can then display.

 

HTH,

 

Carl