Re: missing lilypond-tex-metrics.tex

[Aaron Mehl]

Yes in truth the way programmers document/read
documents is add odds with tech writing. Tech writing
will choose to repeat thingsor give extra example so
as to be as clear and understandable as possible and
programmers want things not to be repeated and as
concise as possible.

I unfortunetly have not upgraded lilypond for so long
that I missed tons of changes.

That said I will start to work on this page and see
what I come up with.

Aaron
--- joe ferguson <address@hidden> wrote:

> With several decades' of programming behind me, one
> of the first things 
> I look for in studying a new language is concise
> descriptions of the 
> syntax of the language and of the structure of
> well-formed programs. 
> It's also nice to get direction from experienced
> writers in the language 
> as to style, since that can make heaps of difference
> in conveying your 
> intent to other humans (or even to yourself, a few
> months later.) 
> Lilypond uses many meta characters that define
> structure in various 
> contexts, but the whole pile of delimiters and their
> context constraints 
> can be quite confusing.
> 
> I would applaud anyone who would tackle the
> documentation update, 
> bringing along the experience of a technical writer.
> There are actually 
> three areas of expertise involved here: Writing,
> Programming, and Music. 
> I would hope that the product of the rewrite (or
> additional section, 
> which I think would be preferable) would get
> thorough reviewing from the 
> programmer's and musician's points of view. I would
> be willing to review 
> from the programmer's viewpoint. I leave the other
> views to the 
> respective experts.
> 
> Aaron Mehl wrote:
> 
> >>I think we use "should be" and "must" fairly
> >>interchangeably.
> >>    
> >>
> >  As a techwriter/user this confuses me. should be
> is
> >a much weaker expression, like it doesn't have to
> but
> >if you want.. must says that it is a requirement to
> >have on of these.
> >
> >  
> >
> >>>then it says:
> >>>"A .ly file contains any number of toplevel
> >>>expressions, where a toplevel expression is one
> of
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>the
> >>    
> >>
> >>>following"
> >>>
> >>>well this is vague. because if some top level
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>elements
> >>    
> >>
> >>>are left out the file won't parse while if others
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>are
> >>    
> >>
> >>>left out it will.
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>Well... but only _requirement_ is that there's
> some
> >>music in
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >You mean to say that if I write a lilypond file
> >with a header and a'4 it will parse? I am trying
> here
> >to clarify what the intent of the documentation is
> >here, not be picky per se.
> >
> >A user doesn't want to know what he may or should
> do,
> >but what he needs to get this up and running. What
> I
> >mean is beating around the bush doesn't help. If
> this
> >is a page detailing lilypond file structure it
> should
> >do that specifically not with shoulds and mights.
> If
> >there are different possiblilies they need to be
> laid
> >out.
> >I in fact recall that for structure there was never
> a
> >one stop shop (on page) that in a straight forward
> >manner detailed what is the structure (in detail)
> of a
> >lilypond  file. I infact thought for years that the
> >[that = this] format of almost all lilypond files I
> >saw on the mailing list and the site was a
> requirement
> >of Lilypond, as opposed to a feature.
> >  
> >
> >>the file.  And even then I'm not certain that
> >>lilypond will give
> >>a parse error.
> >>
> >>If a file won't parse, then something else is
> wrong.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >  
> >
> >>>the example given doesn't use a \score {} block,
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>so I
> >>    
> >>
> >>>must assume that lilypond no longer requires a
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>score
> >>    
> >>
> >>>block?
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>Correct.
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >>>I see a layout block has this replaced the
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>\paper{} ?
> >>
> >>Kind-of.  See the "Paper output" section in
> "Output
> >>formats".
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >>>I am in the mean time still trying to make a
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>layout
> >>    
> >>
> >>>with no includes and lyrics.
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>In addition to reading the manual, you might want
> to
> >>look at
> >>some examples from Mutopia or LSR.
> >>
> >>- Graham
> >>
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >
> >             
> >__________________________________ 
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> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >lilypond-user mailing list
> >address@hidden
> >http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> -- 
> Joe Ferguson
> 
> 
> 


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