Re: Simple OS X Lily previewer in the works

[Nicolas Sceaux]

Ed Baskerville <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> I've just started work on a simple LilyPond previewer for OS X. It
> will be similar to TeXShop, but simpler--at the expense, perhaps, of
> flexibility. The application will be a simple LilyPond text editor
> with indent balancing, parenthesis balancing, and code completion and
> "almost live" PDF previewing--a straightforward, one-trick pony.
>
> I was mostly silent about this because I hadn't actually written any
> code until Thursday. Now that I have some basic functionality, I
> thought I'd gauge interest. I'll try to have a test version available
> soon, probably without syntax coloring or code completion.
>
> A few questions for you all:
>
> (1) Would use use this application? (Feel free to just email me
> directly.)
> (2) Any other key features you'd like to see?
> (3) Echoing Han-Wen's inquiry about a binary distribution: what would
> be a reasonable price?
>
> --Ed

I've been writing few mails to Richard Koch, the author of TeXShop,
who kindly prepared a test version of TeXShop with simple LilyPond
support: when you edit a .ly file, the LilyPond engine (backend) is
selected, and pressing the "Compose" button launches lilypond and then
the PDF viewer.

Here are the issues with TeXShop:

- the syntax coloring is hard coded, and devoted to LaTeX.

- the log message window shows the output of the compilation, but has
  no support for clicking on error lines (just a "goto error" which
  works well for TeX, but not for LilyPond)

- according to Richard, the point-on-click feature on the PDF output
  is not doable now, as Apple's pdf routines don't currently support
  hyperlinks. But this is not specific to TeXShop, and maybe I didn't
  understand the explanation properly.

- the association between file types (.ly, .tex, etc) and engines is
  hard coded (however this is not complicated).

Given these facts, one may think preferable to start a new project, or
try to send patches, or use JEdit.

To answer your questions:
I would not use it, because I'm an Emacs guy. However, the feature
that I think should be present in a decent LilyPond capable editor are
(in random order):
- sytax coloring
- keyword completion
- help accessible from an input file: when the cursor is on a keyword
  or a property name, a key chord opens the documentation where the
  keyword/property/etc is defined.
- compilation with a key chord
- easy navigation from the compilation window to the input file (when
  errors or warning are encountered). And maybe a little visual sign
  showing which lines have errors or warnings.
- point and click from the PDF output to the input file
- I don't want to bother what file is selected when a compilation is
  launched: there must be a way to easily specify which file is the main
  file (such as a little file list window, with a flag than can be set
  behind the main file).
- template insertion
- input from a MIDI keyboard
- ...
- the lilypond version to use might be settable (in order to switch
between stable and unstable for instance)
- guile REPL for debugging :)

I also happen to like features like transposition on region on notes,
and things like that.

and specifically on Mac OS X:
- native look and feel.

Nicolas