Re: GSoC in contemporary notations

[Urs Liska]

Hi Tsz Kiu Pang (which of these names would you like to be called, or 
should I use all of them like I did?)

Am 21.03.19 um 06:58 schrieb Tsz Kiu Pang:
> Hi all,
>
> I am writing to express my interest in working on LilyPond as part of GNU
> in the Google Summer of Code.
>
> I was just looking at the project suggestions, and am interested in working
> on contemporary notations.


This would be great. While all of our GSoC suggestions would be very 
welcome additions this one would maybe provide the most "visible" and 
spectacular addition, opening up LilyPond for a whole range of 
applications and therefore potential users.


> As a composer myself, I do find using Lilypond a
> very steep learning curve, especially for contemporary music, where a lot
> of workarounds are needed.


That's true, and one major issue with that (which a package would 
address) is that so many things have to be done from scratch over and 
over again, for each new project, or at least by each new user dealing 
with them.


> I hope I can use this opportunity to create an
> infrastructure for contemporary notations that will make composers' life
> easier. I am also interested in creating a package that covers the style of
> composers such as Iannis Xenakis or Elliott Carter.


A specific composer's package would be a secondary package built on top 
of a general package, and I think it would be great to aim at starting 
one for one specific composer (the one I had always thought of as a 
basis was Lachenmann, but Xenakis or Carter are equally valid choices), 
although it is not a requirement to achieve /comprehensive/ coverage of 
a composer.


> I am just wondering if there are any suggestions in applying for GSoC and
> writing a project proposal?


Basically you'd have to discuss a proposal on this list or in a somewhat 
more private circle (although generally as much as possible 
communication should be in public space) and find a way to show us your 
qualification, potential and way of communication until April 9.  A bit 
more on that below.


> As for qualifications, I did my undergraduate in Music, majored in
> Composition during my honours year, so I have good knowledge in
> contemporary notation techniques and the capacity to research further if
> required. I am currently a Master student in electrical engineering at the
> University of Melbourne. I have only started programming last year but now
> I am a tutor in programming/computing in C at the University. Though
> scheme/guile is not my strong suit yet (I know the basic syntax and list
> operations, but still struggling to count the parentheses), I am willing to
> learn more and I believe I will have a good command in scheme/guile in a
> few weeks.


The Scheme/Guile part has three steps for you to consider:

 * "Counting parentheses" (i.e. the language basics)
   Depending on how far you've got https://scheme-book.ursliska.de
   might be a useful resource for you. It goes only that far but it
   specifically addresses a) the Scheme language from a dedicated
   LilyPond perspective and b) users counting parentheses (i.e. giving
   a pretty slow-paced introduction)
 * Understanding how Scheme is hooked into LilyPond (on a general level)
 * (Learning how openLilyLib ist structured)
 * Learning how to retrieve the relevant information about score
   elements and how to modify them in appropriate places.

The last one is probably the hardest one since it is pretty opaque and 
terribly documented. But it's the crucial one for a contemporary 
notation package - and it's the one where such a package will make it 
hugely easier for people to work with non-standard notation.

Just last week I've decided to start with a new openLilyLib package: 
https://github.com/openlilylib/grob-tools. The repository on Github is 
empty, and right now I only have one single uncommited function locally, 
but the idea is to create building blocks for recurring tasks like 
getting the exact position of objects relative to the staff or to 
another object, enumerating all NoteColumns included in a slur or 
similar things. This will be very much relevant for a contemporary 
notation package. One could either say that you should put much of your 
results in that package, or we can try to make development of that 
package a community effort so that would take work from you, giving you 
the freedom to go further with the specific challenges.

###

What you should do now is:

 * [of course dive more into Scheme]
 * get an understanding of openLilyLib with
   a) https://github.com/openlilylib/oll-core/wiki
   b) the code in that repository
   c) looking at how other openLilyLib packages are built within that
   infrastructure
 * Form an idea how a contemporary notation package could be approached
   and discuss that with us
 * Find some small things you could do to openLilyLib package(s) to a)
   practice and b) give us an opportunity to assess your work. If we
   have some idea about your current familiarity with the matter we can
   find some suggestions for that.

HTH
Urs

> Kind regards,
> Tsz-Kiu
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