Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] LilyPond interview on linuxmusician.com
From: Paul Davis (paul_AT_linuxaudiosystems.com)
Date: Tue Mar 16 2004 - 15:57:31 EET
>> it appears that many people don't know about amadeus.
>
>There is a good reason for that: it's totally unavailable to
>practically everyone. It's an extremely expensive closed-source
>product that as far as I know is no longer even sold.
i think i worded my comments very poorly yesterday.
>I think the problem here is just that you seem to have started from
>the assumption that Lilypond was in fact unique, and been
>disappointed when it turned out not to be so. It is unique in the
>sense that it's the only tool dedicated to making true
>publication-quality engraving available to anyone, but of course it's
>not a new idea as software. Neither is Ardour, yet you still manage
>to describe that as a revolution on its webpage.
indeed, a very fine and appropriately back-atcha comparison. lilypond
is certainly just as revolutionary as any of the other tools under
development by anyone else here on this list, and for all the same
reasons.
i think i gave the impression that lilypond bores me or something,
when the truth is quite the contrary. i think its an incredible
program, and it produces wonderful, wonderful output. when i read an
interview about it last year, i was raving to several friends of mine
about its potential (we have neighbours who work in the music
publishing industry).
you are right - i was a little disappointed to find that there was
another program that has been around for many years that embodies the
same kind of design philosophy as lilypond - its hard to think of
other examples like this, where the proprietary-but-ancient tool is
the better tool. for text typesetting, TeX was the gold standard that
proprietary software has still barely matched. here it seems we have a
case where, just as with ardour and other DAW/sequencer tools, the
gold standard is a proprietary program (or some combination of them),
and open source is on the threshold of offering the same kind of
quality and functionality to everyone.
so to reiterate, i love lilypond, i think its great and amadeus is not
really a viable alternative to it for all the reasons that have been
mentioned (cost, lack of availability, etc. etc.)
--p
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