Re: sponsorship offer: Lyric fixes (GSoC, etc.)

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi David,

Thanks for the helpful response.

> The problem with a bounty-driven approach is that it only works for
> low-hanging fruit.  You cannot pay every passersby interested in a
> bounty to first start constructing his personal ladder.

Agreed.

I guess what I was hoping to do is pay a orchard scaffold builder something to 
design/build a reasonable base, and then pay whichever transient 
fruit-picker(s) might be available and interested to actually pick the fruit 
(at whatever level they can “safely” reach).

> In this case, there may be a point in paying for
> local workarounds done within the existing framework, workarounds that
> don't easily generalize to other areas but can be done in narrower time
> frames and with less overall work than changing the whole framework
> would be, even if that means that eventually they might get replaced
> with simpler solutions.

Certainly there is a cost-benefit decision to be made here.

> waiting it out until everything in LilyPond has been "done properly”
> is not much of an option for many people.

It definitely isn’t for me: far too many mission-critical commissions on the go 
or in the hopper, and my imminent (e.g., < 1 year) blitz to self-publish my 
entire existing catalogue.

> LilyPond does not fare all that bad in comparison of automated
> typesetters, but part of the reason is just that others suck even worse
> and are much more a collection of workarounds.

Agreed. Lilypond is still the best tool out there for my needs. I just wish I 
could do more, and more beautiful, engraving with a smaller investment of time 
and effort. (Isn’t that the eternal quest?)

> I do suspect that the results will again depend more on local hacks
> rather than global optimization and positioning frameworks

Well, then… I revise my statement: I’m interested in sponsoring the many 
outstanding Lyric fixes, *regardless* of whether the larger picture is being 
considered at all times.

Thanks!
Kieren.
________________________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: address@hidden