Reasons why a LilyPond-to-MEI conversion should be developed

[Urs Liska]

Hello devs,

I would like to get some feedback for use when preparing the mei2ly
application. I will deliberately not say what I think about the topic to
get less influenced opinions.

We will have to define a scope for the project that is sufficiently big
and at the same time not too small. Apart from what we may be interested
in it's important to be plausible and credible in order to get the
application accepted.

mei2ly, the possibility to use LiylPond to engrave MEI encoded editions,
is clearly the foundation of the project, so there's nothing to argue
about that. There are technical aspects, e.g. if LilyPond should consume
MEI or if a converter should produce LilyPond input (or to have both),
but the conversion direction itself is of course a prerequisite of all
discussion.

The other way round is less clear. Should it be possible to convert
LilyPond scores into MEI data? If yes, is it a requirement to have a
"general-purpose" export filter that can (ideally) handle arbitrary
existing LilyPond files or is it acceptable to define a certain subset
that (new) projects are allowed to contain?

I am convinced we should have this, for several reasons. But I think it
is not so clear from an outside perspective, of someone working in the
MEI field and even more of someone having to decide about the application.
So, before I'm going to write about my thoughts and feelings about it
please tell me what you think. We should have good arguments in order
not to slip through the net ...

Best
Urs