I thought I might play with the Lilypond stuff a bit today, but I've hit a big snag. My Lilypond is broken. I'm not quite sure when that happened, but that's really secondary. What matters here is the problem this has brought to light.
I still don't have it working yet. Broken packages. So I'm going to go get some source and compile it. I can get 1.6, the current target, and the version I'm already supposed to have, 1.8.x, the version after, which is somewhat incompatible, or 2.x.x, the current version, which is much more seriously incompatible (ie can't be converted automatically). Lilypond users out there could be running anything. People who track it will be running 2.x.x, and will have to hand edit RG output to get it to work. People with recent distros will be running 1.8.x, and will have to hand edit RG output to get it to work. (Comparatively large syntax changes. Not merely changing the version string.) People with old distros will probably still have 1.6.x, but the packages currently available to me in Debian Testing tell me that it's possible to have a KDE 3.1 level distro with Lilypond 1.4, and Debian Testing will be the next release at some point in the future, and the basis for things like Lindows and other Debian offshoots. This is a real mess. No matter what I pick, millions of people will be screwed. The real problem is that Lilypond isn't backward compatible with itself. There's no minimum standard subset I can use that will cover a broad range of versions. I think this is one more reason why the whole concept of Lilypond export is just a grossly futile effort, no matter how pleasing the results have the potential to be. Not only is it a moving target, but our userbase is very likely to have a completely random assortment of incompatible versions installed. This is probably why Hans has been hiding under a rock for so long. There has to be some middle ground. Maybe bundle a specific version with RG, and support only that. Maybe fork Lilypond into a subset offshoot whose only purpose in life is to serve as a print engine for programs like RG. Anyway, I don't have the energy to even think about this right now, so I guess I'm back to doing nothing again. -- Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621 http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/ ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _______________________________________________ Rosegarden-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - use the link below to unsubscribe https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rosegarden-devel
