5.5.1 Books (LilyPond Contributor’s Guide)

#### 5.5.1 Books

The five main parts of the documentation are the Learning Manual, the Notation Reference, the Application Usage, the Music Glossary, and the Internals Reference.

- Learning Manual

  The LM is written in a tutorial style which introduces the most important concepts, structure and syntax of the elements of a LilyPond score in a carefully graded sequence of steps. Explanations of all musical concepts used in the manual can be found in the Music Glossary, and readers are assumed to have no prior knowledge of LilyPond. The objective is to take readers to a level where the Notation Reference can be understood and employed to both adapt the templates in the Appendix to their needs and to begin to construct their own scores. Commonly used tweaks are introduced and explained. Examples are provided throughout which, while being focused on the topic being introduced, are long enough to seem real in order to retain the readers’ interest. Each example builds on the previous material, and comments are used liberally. Every new aspect is thoroughly explained before it is used.

  Users are encouraged to read the complete Learning Manual from start to finish.

- Notation Reference

  This is a (hopefully complete) description of LilyPond’s input notation. Some material from here may be duplicated in the Learning Manual (for teaching), but consider the NR to be the ‘definitive’ description of each notation element, with the LM being an ‘extra’. The goal is not to provide a step-by-step learning environment – do not avoid using notation that has not be introduced previously in the NR (for example, use `\break` if appropriate). The NR is written in formal technical writing style.

  Avoid duplication. Although users are not expected to read this manual from start to finish, they should be familiar with the material in the Learning Manual (particularly “Fundamental Concepts”), so do not repeat that material in each section of this book. Also watch out for common constructs, like ‘`^`’, ‘`-`’, and ‘`_`’ for directions – those are explained in NR chapter 5. In NR chapter 1, for example, you can use a reference and write:

      Dynamics may be manually placed above or below the staff, see
      @ref{Direction and placement}.

  Most tweaks should be added to snippets in the LilyPond Wiki and not placed directly in the `.itely` file. In some cases, tweaks may be placed in the main text, but ask about this first.

  Finally, you should assume that users know what the notation means; explaining musical concepts happens in the Music Glossary.

- Application Usage

  This manual gives information about calling and using the `lilypond` program itself and other tools related to it (in particular `convert-ly` and `lilypond-book`), issues related to differences in the used operating system, some pointers to external programs, etc. This manual is written in formal technical writing style.

  Users are not expected to read this manual from start to finish.

- Music Glossary

  Information about the music notation itself. Explanations and translations about notation terms go here.

  Users are not expected to read this manual from start to finish.

- Internals Reference

  This manual is automatically generated from documentation strings embedded in the source code. It provides an in-depth reference to almost all low-level details of LilyPond.

  Users are not expected to read this manual at all. It should rather be used like a dictionary to look up, say, all properties and sub-properties of a slur. The writing style is extremely terse and technical (sometimes too terse, admittedly).

#### LilyPond Contributor’s Guide v2.26.0 (stable-branch).

- 1 Introduction to contributing
  - 1.1 Help us
  - 1.2 Overview of work flow
  - 1.3 Summary for experienced developers
  - 1.4 Mentors
- 2 Quick start
  - 2.1 LilyDev
    - Installing LilyDev in VirtualBox
    - Configuring LilyDev in VirtualBox
  - 2.2 Compiling with LilyDev
  - 2.3 Now start work!
- 3 Working with source code
  - 3.1 Setting up
    - 3.1.1 Installing Git
    - 3.1.2 Creating a GitLab account and setting up SSH
    - 3.1.3 Cloning and forking the repository
    - 3.1.4 Configuring Git
  - 3.2 Git cheat sheet
  - 3.3 Lifecycle of a merge request
    - 3.3.1 Uploading a patch for review
    - 3.3.2 Automated testing
    - 3.3.3 Patch countdown
    - 3.3.4 Merging to master
    - 3.3.5 Abandoned patches
  - 3.4 Writing good commit messages
  - 3.5 Commit access
  - 3.6 Further Git documentation resources
  - 3.7 Repository directory structure
- 4 Compiling
  - 4.1 Overview of compiling
  - 4.2 Requirements
    - 4.2.1 Requirements for running LilyPond
    - 4.2.2 Requirements for compiling LilyPond
      - Fedora
      - Linux Mint
      - OpenSUSE
      - Ubuntu
      - Other
    - 4.2.3 Requirements for building documentation
  - 4.3 Getting the source code
  - 4.4 Configuring `make`
    - 4.4.1 Build modes
    - 4.4.2 Running `autogen.sh`
    - 4.4.3 Running `configure`
      - Configuration options
      - Checking build dependencies
      - Configuring target directories
  - 4.5 Compiling LilyPond
    - 4.5.1 Using `make`
    - 4.5.2 Saving time with the `-j` option
    - 4.5.3 Useful `make` variables
  - 4.6 Post-compilation options
    - 4.6.1 Installing LilyPond from a local build
    - 4.6.2 Generating documentation
      - Documentation editor’s edit/compile cycle
      - Building documentation
      - Building a single document
      - Saving time with `CPU_COUNT`
      - Installing documentation
      - Building documentation without compiling
    - 4.6.3 Testing LilyPond binary
  - 4.7 Problems
  - 4.8 Concurrent stable and development versions
    - 4.8.1 Replacing the notation fonts in development versions
  - 4.9 Build system
- 5 Documentation work
  - 5.1 Introduction to documentation work
  - 5.2 `\version` in documentation files
  - 5.3 Documentation suggestions
  - 5.4 Texinfo introduction and usage policy
    - 5.4.1 Texinfo introduction
    - 5.4.2 Documentation files
    - 5.4.3 Sectioning commands
    - 5.4.4 Menus
    - 5.4.5 LilyPond formatting
    - 5.4.6 Text formatting
    - 5.4.7 Syntax survey
      - Comments
      - Cross-references
      - External links
      - Fixed-width font
      - Indexing
      - Lists
      - Special characters
      - Miscellany
    - 5.4.8 Other text concerns
  - 5.5 Documentation policy
    - 5.5.1 Books
    - 5.5.2 Section organization
    - 5.5.3 Checking cross-references
    - 5.5.4 General writing
    - 5.5.5 Technical writing style
  - 5.6 Tips for writing documentation
    - 5.6.1 Working on subsections
    - 5.6.2 Searching
  - 5.7 Scripts to ease documentation work
    - 5.7.1 Building only one section of the documentation
    - 5.7.2 Updating documentation with `convert-ly`
  - 5.8 Documentation strings in the Internals Reference
  - 5.9 Translating the documentation
    - 5.9.1 Getting started with documentation translation
      - Translation requirements
      - Which documentation can be translated
      - Starting translation in a new language
    - 5.9.2 Documentation translation details
      - Files to be translated
      - Translating the website and other Texinfo documentation
      - Adding a Texinfo manual
    - 5.9.3 Documentation translation maintenance
      - Check state of translation
      - Updating documentation translation
      - Updating translation committishes
      - Maintaining without updating translations
    - 5.9.4 Technical background
- 6 Website work
  - 6.1 Introduction to website work
  - 6.2 Uploading website
  - 6.3 Debugging website and docs locally
  - 6.4 Translating the website
- 7 LilyPond Wiki work
  - 7.1 Introduction to the LilyPond Wiki
  - 7.2 Adding and editing snippets
  - 7.3 Snippet administration
  - 7.4 The `makelsr.pl` script
  - 7.5 LilyPond Wiki to Git
- 8 Issues
  - 8.1 Introduction to issues
  - 8.2 Triaging bugs
  - 8.3 Issue classification
  - 8.4 Adding issues to the tracker
- 9 Regression tests
  - 9.1 Introduction to regression tests
  - 9.2 Precompiled regression tests
  - 9.3 Compiling regression tests
  - 9.4 Regtest comparison
  - 9.5 Pixel-based regtest comparison
  - 9.6 Finding the cause of a regression
  - 9.7 MusicXML tests
- 10 Programming work
  - 10.1 Overview of LilyPond architecture
  - 10.2 LilyPond programming languages
  - 10.3 Programming without compiling
  - 10.4 Finding functions
  - 10.5 Code style
    - 10.5.1 Languages
    - 10.5.2 Filenames
    - 10.5.3 Code formatting
    - 10.5.4 Naming Conventions
    - 10.5.5 Broken code
    - 10.5.6 Code comments
    - 10.5.7 Handling errors
    - 10.5.8 Localization
  - 10.6 Warnings, Errors, Progress and Debug Output
  - 10.7 Debugging LilyPond
    - 10.7.1 Debugging overview
    - 10.7.2 Debugging C++ code
    - 10.7.3 Debugging Scheme code
    - 10.7.4 Debugging scoring algorithms
    - 10.7.5 Debugging skylines
  - 10.8 Tracing object relationships
  - 10.9 Tracing processing time
  - 10.10 Adding or modifying features
    - 10.10.1 Write the code
    - 10.10.2 Write regression tests
    - 10.10.3 Write convert-ly rule
    - 10.10.4 Automatically update documentation
    - 10.10.5 Manually update documentation
    - 10.10.6 Edit changes.tely
    - 10.10.7 Verify successful build
    - 10.10.8 Verify regression tests
    - 10.10.9 Post patch for comments
    - 10.10.10 Push patch
    - 10.10.11 Closing the issues
  - 10.11 Iterator tutorial
  - 10.12 Engraver tutorial
    - 10.12.1 Useful methods for information processing
    - 10.12.2 Translation process
    - 10.12.3 Listening to music events
    - 10.12.4 Acknowledging grobs
    - 10.12.5 Engraver declaration/documentation
  - 10.13 Callback tutorial
  - 10.14 Understanding pure properties
    - 10.14.1 Purity in LilyPond
    - 10.14.2 Writing a pure function
    - 10.14.3 How purity is defined and stored
    - 10.14.4 Where purity is used
    - 10.14.5 Case studies
    - 10.14.6 Debugging tips
  - 10.15 LilyPond scoping
  - 10.16 Regular expressions
  - 10.17 Scheme->C interface
    - 10.17.1 Comparison
    - 10.17.2 Conversion
  - 10.18 Garbage collection for dummies
  - 10.19 LilyPond miscellany
    - 10.19.1 Spacing algorithms
    - 10.19.2 Info from Han-Wen email
    - 10.19.3 Music functions and Guile debugging
    - 10.19.4 Articulations on EventChord
- 11 Release work
  - 11.1 Development phases
  - 11.2 Release checklist
  - 11.3 Major release checklist
- 12 Modifying the Emmentaler font
  - 12.1 Overview of the Emmentaler font
  - 12.2 Font creation tools
  - 12.3 Adding a new font section
  - 12.4 Adding a new glyph
  - 12.5 Building the changed font
  - 12.6 METAFONT formatting rules
- 13 Administrative policies
  - 13.1 LilyPond is GNU Software
  - 13.2 Environment variables
  - 13.3 Performing yearly copyright update (“grand-replace”)
- Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License