Re: Issue 698 in lilypond: Windows users should be offered a better first impression

[Patrick McCarty]

On 2009-10-06, Valentin Villenave wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 12:26 AM,  <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> > Rather, it might be better to write a cross-platform GUI (not Java
> > based) so that we're not stuck using the Windows API.  I've been
> > thinking about starting a project like this for a while, but I'm
> > not promising anything yet.
> 
> I've been thinking the same thing.

Cool!

> 1) I believe PyGTK might be the way to go (Python is already included
> with LilyPond, GTK is cross-platform, stable, and almost everywhere on
> GNU/Linux distributions. Besides Lily already uses GTK low-level stuff
> like Pango).

PyGTK is definitely an option.  wxPython looks like another very
reasonable possibility.

> 2) A small GUI could also be able to detect, configure and launch
> already installed editing environments (It could check for emacs,
> LilyPondTool and Fresco, for instance).

Yeah, that would be pretty simple, I think.

> 3) As for the text editing component, Scintilla is probably one of the
> bests out there, it has countless features, most of which would not be
> needed at all (so perhaps we could distribute a <100Ko stripped
> version). So, even users who do not have emacs/LPT/whatnot could enjoy
> syntax-highlighting and proper indentation :)

Hmm, I'll have to take a look at that editor.

The problem of syntax highlighting is something that's been bugging me
for a while now, but I'll save that for another big feature request to
bug-lilypond (and maybe the lily-proposals list) once I can articulate
my ideas clearly.  :-)

> 4) And if we really do need to embed a PDF viewer (no we don't, but
> still), muPDF is the lightest, fastest solution. And it's
> cross-platform.

This would be a nice feature, but should be implemented *after* we
have a working text editor.  Also, in the future, we can expect to see
a nice libgnupdf, and we might consider using that.

> 5) ...Aaand ideally, we should have some kind of an auto-updater
> mechanism. Having to uninstall/download/install everything everytime
> is a PITA.

That would be cool.

> 6) And if we ever do manage to achieve that, we could name it, huh,
> "EasyLilyPond" or something :-)

Sure!  :-)

> There, I've said it. No matter how, I'd be delighted to join you in
> developing something.

Okay, thanks.  Since this is obviously still in the brainstorming
stage, I'll set up a wiki page.

-Patrick