Re: About "lilyglyphs" package usage difficulties

[Urs Liska]

Hello,

Am 22.02.2014 21:46, schrieb Server Acim:
> Hello,
> I am a composer and music teacher at the Inonu University - State
> Conservatory in Malatya, TURKEY. Also I am the Director of Inonu
> University - State Conservatory. I am also the Full Professor of
> Composition and Conducting at the University.

You're welcome.

> I am using Linux Mint 16 (Petra) Cinnamon Edition as basic linux distro.
>
> I am very interested in "lilyglyphs" package. Because, I am writing some
> of my textbooks with LaTeX and LilyPond. Sometimes I need some musical
> symbols just like lilyglyphs package does while preparing a little
> textbook for my music students.
>
> First of all, the Linux Mint distro does not have the lilyglyphs package
> in its repository at the moment. I sent an e-mail to the developers of
> Linux Mint as my wish of entering this package. I hope that we can see
> it in the next release of Linux Mint.

I'm not really sure if that's the right approach. lilyglyphs is a "LaTeX 
package" and not a "Linux package", so it can be part of a LaTeX 
distribution, but not directly of a Linux distribution.

> By the way, I installed Fedora 20 - LXDE desktop into my old laptop. I
> had bought it in 2003. I installed the lilyglyphs package into the
> Fedora 20 - LXDE. But, I could not able to compile example file of
> lilyglyphs package. "I do not know how to compile it". I know to compile
> an LaTeX file with pdflatex only.
>
> I read the manual of lilyglyphs. But, I have some critics.
>
> I was not able to understand that:
> a) If I want to compile the example.tex file which is given at the
> manual, which command will I use?
>
> b) The manual is very detailed but there is not any sentence about like
> this: "You can compile this file with this command: "xxxlatex example.tex"

OK. Before I'll look into what I've written exactly, please tell me 
which version of lilyglyphs you have (see at the beginning of the 
manual), and where you got it from (CTAN or Github?).

In its present state lilyglyphs _requires_ XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX, which is 
surely mentioned in the manual. Moreover, LuaLaTeX must be very current 
(e.g. the version in TeXLive 2013 works while TeXLive 2012 does not).
The reason for this restriction is that lilyglyphs accesses the glyphs 
from LilyPond's OpenType font, and this is only possible with these two 
LaTeX engines.
There is a way to change the behaviour so lilyglyphs would also be 
compatible with plain LaTeX, but I don't know _anything_ about the 
necessary steps and can't start learning it because I wouldn't use it 
anyway. Unfortunately I didn't manage to keep track of the one offer of 
assistance in this field so far - I really should come back to this ...

So you need to run "xelatex example.tex" or "lualatex example.tex" to 
see if it works.

> c) I am using "texmaker" LaTeX editor. It is very good for me. But, what
> kind of settings should I make for using lilyglyphs package.

You need no settings. You just have to find the command to trigger 
xelatex or lualatex instead of pdflatex. If you should ever (like me) 
come to the decision to use one of these exclusively you should assign 
the "compile and view" command (IIRC) to it.

> d) Once before a month ago, I tried to install lilyglphs package
> manually but I was not able to do it. Is it possible that to prepare a
> installer file? It could be compressed in a ".tar.gz" package. After
> untarring, we cand find an ".sh" file. After changing the permisson of
> this file with "chmod" commands, with "./xxxx.sh" command neccesary
> packages can be installed to the relevant directories.

I'm not sure if that's possible because there could be so many different 
systems and combinations (operating system and LaTeX distribution) that 
I don't know if it's doable in a straightforward manner. The point is 
that in addition to making the package itself usable for LaTeX one has 
to take care of the fonts.
The easiest way to get lilyglyphs to run is of course getting it through 
TeXLive (2013), which does everything correctly by itself.

> I saw some python files inside the package that is relevant for
> compiling the .tex files but I was not have to time reading it.

No, the Python files aren't necessary for compiling .tex files. You 
_can_ use them for extending the package. They are used to generate a 
bunch of new commands in one run. But that's definitely "advanced use".

> I want to congratulate Urs Liska for the package, but these are my
> problem about the package.

Thank you. The best way to express your appreciation is learn how to use 
it, spread the word, and - when you use it regularly - contribute back 
new commands.

I suggest we move this to private conversation now. I'm always 
interested in users' perspectives like yours. I'd like to walk you 
through to being able to use the package and use this experience to 
improve the documentation.

Best
Urs

> With my respects.


--
Urs Liska
www.openlilylib.org