LilyPond 1.7.26

LilyPond 1.7.26 is out! This release should be considered as a first
1.8 release candidate. Relative to 1.7.25, it contains a few small
fixes and an update of the manual. The changes relative to 1.6 are
documented below

 * Binary packagers are kindly invited to try and package it for their
   favorite operating system platforms.

   Binaries for Cygwin and RedHat 9 are in the works.

 * Translators are kindly invited to update the translations that are
   present in the po/ subdirectory of the source archive. If you go
   ahead, make sure to coordinate things with the translation project
   at
   http://www2.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard/po/registry.cgi?domain=lilypond

 * Experienced users are invited to upgrade to 1.7.26, and check
   whether their 1.6 files still work as they should on 1.7; don't
   forget to run them through convert-ly before trying.

   Please report bugs to [email protected].

   We want to make sure that 1.7.26 is as bug-free as possible.
   Because we cannot wait forever with releasing it, we have a pretty
   narrow definition of "bug": for the release everything that worked
   in 1.6 should also work in 1.8. If not, then either it's a new
   feature (documented in NEWS), or it's a bug.

   Of course, you are free report other problems as well, but they
   will most likely be fixed by updating the appropriate BUGS section
   in the notation manual.

 * Newbie users are invited to read through the manual. All sections
   from the preface up to the appendices have been revised. Please
   read the manual, and report any typos, strange sentences, or
   unclear sections to [email protected]

 * If you don't feel qualified to do any of the above, you can help
   test my new PayPal account, by sending money to [email protected] :-)


At present I am aware of two problems in this release

 * Something is broken with drum notation. Rune assured me he would
   look into it shortly.

 * The PDF output (generated by texinfo + dvips + ps2pdf) of the
   manuals has a broken page layout.  Suggestions from TeX/DVI/dvips
   gurus on how to fix this are very much appreciated.



Greetings,

Han-Wen

(hoping to be deluged by bug-reports and patches)




****************



New features in 1.8 since 1.6
=============================

** There chord entry code has been completely rewritten. It is now
cleaner and more flexible.

** A new syntax has been added for  text entry.

This syntax is more friendly than the old mechanism, and it is
implemented in a more robust and modular way.

** Deeper integration of the input language and Scheme. You can now use
LilyPond identifiers in Scheme, and use Scheme expressions instead of
LilyPond identifiers.

** The internal representation of music has been cleaned up completely
and converted to Scheme data structures.  The representation may be
exported as XML.

** A new syntax has been added for chords:

	<< PITCHES >>

In version 2.0, this syntax will be changed to

   < PITCHES >  for chords

and

   \simultaneous { .. } for simultaneous music.

** A new uniform postfix syntax for articulation has been introduced.
A beamed slurred pair of eighth notes can be entered as

	c8-[-( d8-]-) 

In version 2.0, postfix syntax will be the only syntax
available, and the dashes will become optional.

** User code may now be executed during interpreting.

The syntax for this code is 

	\applycontext #SCHEME-FUNCTION


** User code may now be executed on arbitrary grobs durign interpreting.

The syntax for this feature is

 	\applyoutput #SCHEME-FUNCTION

SCHEME-FUNCTION takes a single argument, and is called for every grob
that is created in the current context.

** New algorithms for chord-name formatting have been installed. They
can be tuned and have ergonomic syntax for entering exceptions.

** Texts may now be put on multimeasure rests, eg.

	R1*20^\markup { "GP" }

** Ancient notation now prints ligatures in Gregorian square neumes
notation, roughly following the typographical style of the Liber
hymnarius of Solesmes, published in 1983.  Ligatures are still printed
without the proper line breaking and horizontal spacing.

** Glissandi can now be printed using the zigzag style.

** Clusters may now be printed. The syntax is:

	\apply #clusters-to-notes { NOTE NOTE .. }

** For irregular meters, beat grouping marks can be printed. The
syntax for this is

	#(set-time-signature 7 8 '(3 2 2))

** Nested horizontal brackets for music analysis can now be printed.

	NOTE-\startGroup
		..
	NOTE-\stopGroup

** Ottava brackets are now fully supported as a feature.
The syntax is

	#(set-octavation 1)

** Metronome markings are printed when a
\tempo command is processed. 

** Fingerings can be put on chords horizontally.

** The appearance of various glyphs has been fine-tuned 

** Different types of percent style repeats may now be nested

** The emacs support has been extended.

** The manual has been completely revised and extended.


-- 

Han-Wen Nienhuys   |   [email protected]   |   http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen