Re: A documentation/tutorial/whatever problem

[Carl Sorensen]

On Wed, Nov 6, 2024 at 6:30 AM David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> wrote:

>
> Check out
> <
> https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/137874/lilypond-how-to-modify-stencil-by-automatically-getting-the-current-stencil-and
> >
> and its (currently) two answers while the second one (which was posted
> first) has not been removed.
>
> <SNIP>



> Why hasn't a capable LilyPond programmer not been able to come up with a
> much simpler and much more versatile solution as shown in the first
> answer?
>
>
I think that there is a huge startup curve to become a LilyPond programmer,
and once you've paid the price to get into the programming, you have a set
of tools that you know how to use.  So you continue to use them, even when
better tools become available.


> LilyPond has received a lot of work to facilitate simple solutions, and
> yet the better approachability tends to rather lend itself to people
> becoming more confident designing overcomplicated solutions.
>
>
I think that the work that facilitates simple solutions is not readily
apparent in the Notation Reference, perhaps because we don't have a nice
place to put it there.


> What kind of project should we tackle in order to help people better use
> what is there in a manner that is reasonably easy to use and understand?
>

I think this is a great question.  I wish I had a great answer to this
great question, but I don't think I do.

I think it's related to the problem of not having good documentation of
LilyPond processing.  If I had a good understanding of LilyPond processing,
then perhaps I could see where the difficulties arise in more complex
modifications of the music.  Then, the simplifications provided could be
introduced.

I don't know this information well enough to write the documentation.  I'm
not sure I even know it well enough to ask the questions to help the
documentation.

Perhaps we could get started by looking at the question you posted (about
bracketifying a rest, when the rest is not the LilyPond default rest).  A
clear explanation about why the basic method didn't work and how the "best"
Lilypond tools could be used to overcome it might help us understand the
issues.



>
> How can we better spread best programming practises and showcase the
> tools that are available for them?
>

Which people know the best programming practices?  You, Harm, Werner?  I'm
certainly not part of that group.

Thanks,

Carl