Greetings, David, First, I thank you for venting, for your vent was/is mine as well and is the reason why I am still using V-22.2. Does this then mean that the terminal command is now as straightforward as "sudo apt install lilypond"? Will that automatically install the texinfo files as well?
Hwaen Ch'uqi On 5/14/23, David Sumbler <da...@aeolia.co.uk> wrote: > On Sun, 2023-05-14 at 13:31 +0200, Jean Abou Samra wrote: >> Le dimanche 14 mai 2023 à 12:15 +0100, David Sumbler a écrit : >> > It's a while since I used Lilypond. I have a bit of tweaking I >> > want to do to some scores, so thought I should download the latest >> > version. In the end, I decided to use v2.24.1, rather than 2.25.4, >> > although I have mostly used the "unstable" versions in the past. >> > >> > Lilypond used to use a global install, and it was the work of a few >> > minutes to download and install this on my Linux machines, >> > including all the documentation too if one added the -d flag. >> > >> > I have managed to install Lilypond, and even the docs, a couple of >> > times since it changed to a sort of flatpack design. Each time it >> > has taken me a long time to get it all working. Today I have spent >> > well over an hour messing about, and I have now managed to get >> > lilypond installed and also the documentation. >> > >> > But convert-ly doesn't work: I get a >> > "/home/david/lilypond/usr/bin/python3: not found" error. This is >> > probably because the convert-ly script I have in my ~/bin/ folder >> > needs amending, but I can see myself having to spend another hour >> > or two trying to sort out what is going wrong and how to change it. >> > >> > What seems to be missing is a simple to find and to follow set of >> > instructions on how to install Lilypond. I was surprised to see >> > that the Learning Manual now encourages users to use a package from >> > their distro. This seems to be a change of policy: previously, the >> > website discouraged users from doing this, because the repositories >> > usually have out of date versions. But perhaps this is the path I >> > should go down, simply to save time. >> > >> > Sorry, this is just a grumble about having to mess about so much to >> > get Lilypond functioning. But surely there ought to be some sort >> > of instructions on the download site about how to get everything >> > installed and working. >> >> >> What does “install” mean to you? >> >> This is a serious question, not hair splitting. Depending on what you >> actually want to do with LilyPond, the way to “install” it can be >> vastly different. >> >> If you just want to run it from the command line, then you don't need >> to install it in any way, you can just run >> "~/where/you/unpacked/the/archive/bin/lilypond". >> >> If you want to use it *regularly* from the terminal, or if you want >> some tool (e.g., Emacs) to find it as just "lilypond", you can just >> prepend the right directory to your PATH by adding this to your shell >> startup file (e.g., ~/.bashrc): >> >> export PATH=/where/you/unpacked/the/archive/bin:$PATH >> >> and this will make it callable as "lilypond". >> >> If you want to use it with Frescobaldi, that's in the learning >> manual, but I suppose you saw that. >> >> For the documentation there is no real "installation" process in any >> case (OK, except maybe if you want the Info documentation). >> >> To me, the problem with “there should be a simple way to install >> LilyPond” is that “install LilyPond” is not something well-defined at >> all. There is also a purely psychological issue that some people >> think it's a must to “install” something in some way before being >> able to use it. >> >> There are good reasons why the script that used to be shipped isn't >> shipped anymore (for example: it would not work well with having >> several versions in parallel). > > OK - point taken! > > After writing my previous moaning message, I decided to see what > version of Lilypond I would get if I installed my Linux distro's > version (I'm using Ubuntu-Unity 23.04). Rather to my surprise I found > that it is v.2.24.1, the latest "stable" version, and the same as I > downloaded earlier from the Lilypond download site. I also downloaded > the docs. > > And magically it all seems to work. convert-ly worked straight away, > and all is well. No doubt this is why new users are now encouraged to > use their distro's version, the opposite advice to what used to be > given. So in future I'll probably stick with this policy. Since I > tend to install new versions of Ubuntu fairly frequently, my Lilypond > versions shouldn't be too out of date. > > David > >
