Re: User Experience Engineering

[Trent Johnston]

As a regular user of Sibelius and Lilypond I can safely say that Lilypond
tends to come out on top.

Sibelius while a very beautiful and attractive program GUI wise, it is let
down by this very fact! (same as Finale). Sibelius cannot make adjustments
on the fly as each note or lyric is inputted. Sibelius is also unable adjust
the distance between a lyric and the lowest note or the distance between a
dynamic mark and the stave below. All this needs to be done by hand a very
tiresome experience when adjusting lengthy scores.

The ability to simply type in a code and have the program make all the
decisions regarding layout is a great time saver!!

Sure there is a steep learning curve to really use the program but that's
the same for Sibelius and if you want to be really sadistic there's Finale.
When you consider that you pay at least $400-600 for these programs then
Lilypond wins out on usability and getting the job done hands down.

Trent