Re: another 'wrong type argument' error

[Jean Abou Samra]

Hi,

I'm not a specialist of these topics, just replying to one
specific point…


Le 17/10/2022 à 21:11, Alex Harker a écrit :
> *In terms of Lilypond.app* - I suspect this would be useful to 
> maintain - it’s how I was using it until my latest system (at which 
> point I moved to Frescobaldi to have a GUI - that’s a much nicer 
> environment). I think the majority of Mac users wouldn’t be 
> comfortable with a command-line interface, or having to deal with a 
> separate GUI/environment to be installed onto. Thus, from my view this 
> is about new adopters - getting people to try Lilypond in the first place.
>
> I saw a branch that looked like it might be the old Mac app - I’d be 
> happy to take a look once I can get lilypond building. Can someone 
> confirm where this is?



https://github.com/gperciva/lilypad


> I presume the first goal would simply be to resurrect it as is? The 
> packaging part is trivial - it’s the app itself will require more of 
> look, but there are also tighter requirements in terms of code signing 
> etc. these days in terms of getting around Apple’s gatekeeper and that 
> would be something to think about later down the line, but only once 
> the app was back up an running locally.


I was actually *glad* to see the LilyPad app disappearing. Here
is my personal experience from initially trying LilyPond -- I
was on macOS at the time: I downloaded LilyPond.app as recommended
on the website, I saw there were GUI recommendations on the website
as well but didn't pay much attention, I used LilyPond in LilyPad
for two years or so, before I had the relief to discover Frescobaldi,
which is a *lot* more usable, and blamed myself for not trying
it earlier.

By default, people will choose whatever has been installed on their
computer, whatever you recommend them. By not providing a GUI, we
force people to install a decent editor, which is a bit more work
to install, but we also make their initial user experience a lot
more friendly. (And there is a gentle installation tutorial,
https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.23/Documentation/learning/graphical-setup-under-macos
on which I spent quite a lot of time ...)

In contrast, I think it would be great to have a way of installing
LilyPond that will look more familiar to macOS users (and thus
reassuring; in my experience people can be very afraid that software
they install might do something bad to their computer). But
*without* a GUI. Or perhaps just something that opens a window
saying that LilyPond has been installed successfully and pointing
to https://lilypond.org/easier-editing.html

Better yet: a .dmg package installing both Frescobaldi and LilyPond
together. The latest release of Frescobaldi is actually missing a
.dmg package, which is something you might want to help with ...
(CCing Davide about this.)

Best,
Jean