> I am using lilypond 1.0.4 with Solaris 2.6 and g++ 2.8.1. Here are a
> few remarks:
>
> I got the package and read that python was required. It would be nice
> if there was information about the consequences of not having python.
> I couldn't figure out where to get python. All of my web searches
> lead back to a site called www.python.org and it was down. If you're
> going to require an obscure scripting language, I think you should
> mention a few places where it can be obtained.
Well, a search with archie gave lots of ftp sites. The following list
of ftp mirrors is given in the Python documentation:
<URL:ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/plan/python/>
<URL:ftp://ftp.uu.net/languages/python/>
<URL:ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/graphics/graphics/sgi-stuff/python/>
<URL:ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/python/>
<URL:ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/lang/python/>
<URL:ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/uunet/languages/python/>
<URL:ftp://ftp.sterlng.com/programming/languages/python/>
<URL:ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/python/>
> The documentation tries to use a4wide.sty. I don't have it. I don't
> even have A4 size paper, so I don't particularly want it. You might
> want to try writing a style that is tolerable on either A4 or USA size
> and including the .sty file so that the stuff will compile. I made an
> empty a4wide.sty, but then some parts of the printed documentation
> looked funny because the margins are too large. Once I did get the
> documentation printed, I found that the tutorial.latex file had "\%"
> at the beginning and ended up printing a blank page for the first
> page.
Yes, a format that fits both A4 and US letter would be nice, both for
the documentation but also in ly2dvi, to make it easy to publish
music on the net as PS files that can be printed everywhere.
> What does \partial do, exactly? I wanted to make a short measure in
> the middle and tried to use \partial, but it didn't work. The reason
> I wanted a short measure is because there is a repeat back to the
> beginning and the pickup notes are played again. Then there is a
> second ending when you come around again, so that measure is never
> completed. I had to use \cadenza instead to do it. The function of
> \bar is a little unclear to me as well. Does it force a bar line and
> terminate the measure? (This is what I expected, but it doesn't seem
> to be what it does.) Does it just immediately draw the specified
> symbol but not terminate the measure?
\partial is only for upbeats at the beginning of a piece. If you want a
repeat sign in the middle of a bar, just use \bar ":|". I'm not absolutely
sure on the meaning of \bar, but I don't think it terminates the measure.
(Which is what you want in your example with a repeat in the middle of a bar.)
> I couldn't find any way to do first ending and second ending for the
> repeat. But...it was very difficult to tell what features existed.
> There is no list of commands anywhere that I could find and no index
> to the documentation.
If you read the TODO file, prima volta/secunda volta is mentioned.
I found a list of commands in chapter 10 of the tutorial, "Mudela,
the Music-Definition Language". However, since Lilypond evolves
rapidly, it's not always that the documentation is fully up to date.
> The \bar ":|"; command doesn't put enough space on the right side.
> The note steps are very close to the bar.
Agreed. This problem with the spacing after bar lines has appeared a
number of times has still not really been solved in a satisfactory way.
> I tried to insert some space with "s"...
>
> But the spacing note "s" seems to occupy some time---I put it in and
> get errors about the bar lines. From reading the docs I got the
> impression that it inserted space but didn't take any time. In any
> case, it added too much space for this situation.
An "s" gives a time space in the current line of music. The duration of an
"s" is given in the same way as for notes and rests, e.g. s4 inserts a space
the length of a quaver. Everything that Lilypond typesets gets its horisontal
position from the position in time.
> The command name \accidentals seems misleading (a violation of the
> "law of least astonishment", perhaps). I couldn't figure out what it
> did without experimenting. I sort of expected that it would be a list
> of the notes that required accidentals printed in the music, and any
> other sharp or flat notes would magically appear in the key signature
> (though this seemed odd). The notes which appear in the key signature
> are NOT accidentals, so the command name is actually the precise
> >reverse< of its function. It might be better called \keysignature
> (which is only one letter more).
Well, normally you would use \key. The command \accidentals lists the
flats, sharps and naturals that should appear in the key signature.
Since the command \accidentals is one of my small contributions to the
project, I would happily volunteer to change the name if you think
\keysignature is better.
> When I display .dvi files using xdvi, often beams and slurs do not
> appear. There is no error message from xdvi (and I've never had any
> problems with it). MakeTeXPK generated a bunch of pk files, so the
> fonts should be available. When I print out the same file, everything
> looks fine.
The beams and slurs are drawn with Postscript commands embedded in the
dvi file and sometimes xdvi failes to call ghostscript in the correct
way, expecially when you have changed the magnification. For me it
usually helps to restart xdvi.
/Mats
