Re: New to Lilypond - Questions about using Python to structure Lilypond scores

[David Kastrup]

Garreth <address@hidden> writes:

> I am brand new to Lilypond (and Frescobaldi), like a couple of days new. I am
> a music theory professor looking to use some computer skills I have (I know
> some Python) to aid my teaching and research. I am sorry if this is a really
> basic question, or if it's been answered elsewhere in these forums. I tried
> to find an answer but didn't find one that made a lot of sense to me.
>
> Here are my questions:
>
> Can one write programs in Python that will then structure and launch scores
> in Frescobaldi/Lilypond? Specifically, I would like to write algorithms in
> Python that, given parameters I am working on programming, can write scores
> that can then be translated to and launched in Lilypond/Frescobaldi?
>
> Could one conceivably go the other way, somehow send a Lilypond document to
> a Python program that can "grade" and "evaluate" the score in ways that I am
> working on programming?
>
> I am not looking for a lot of depth at this point. I basically just want to
> know if these scenarios are possible. I don't want to spend a whole lot of
> time learning programs (like Lilypond and Frescobaldi) if my end goal simply
> isn't possible.
>
> Thank you so much for helping an sorry again if this has been covered
> elsewhere!

LilyPond uses Scheme (in particular GNU Guile) as its extension
language.  Frescobaldi, however, is written in Python and has a library
for parsing a lot of LilyPond (which it uses for syntax highlighting,
indentation, on-the-fly transposition and conversion between
relative/absolute mode, so it does a somewhat comprehensive job).  So
you might have success reading up the Frescobaldi programmer or
power-user level documentation.

-- 
David Kastrup