[linux-audio-dev] Linux soundapps pages updated

[Dave Phillips]

Jan Nieuwenhuizen wrote:

>... the recent /. story reminded me that LilyPond has still
>less visibility than I like to imagine; comments from Linux users
>saying this was exactly what they had been looking for or even had
>been thinking of implementing.  That makes you wonder, why is LilyPond
>so invisible, even for Linux users (btw, we have binaries for and
>users on MacOS X and Windows too.)
>
>Looking for Linux and music easily brings one to your linux-music.org
>site, but that was a bit of a dead end really, as far as finding
>LilyPond was concerned.
>
>So, with your post about updated pages, this seemed a logical first
>line of attack ;-)
>
Well, it would certainly help if the Linux soundapps pages didn't suck 
so bad. It's all hand-edited HTML, no dynamic content, no user feedback 
or other portals, no real assessments of the software, too little 
information for the entries, et cetera ad nauseam.

I have lost count of the number of proposals I've received to upgrade 
the sites to some more modern format. As Robin Whittle described it, the 
pages are currently merely a monstrous "link farm", useful to some 
extent, but hardly state-of-the-useful-art. I have less than zero time 
to put into upgrading the site, and it is my hope that someday I'll be 
able to turn the whole thing over to the community to turn it into 
something more like what the community (myself included) would like to see.

Meanwhile, I continue to maintain the pages as a service. The only ad 
running is the outdated ad for my book, and I have not solicited 
advertisements (even though I can certainly use the income). I intended 
the site to be free of crap, and so it is (excepting some crappy 
software). It has been a way for me to give something back to Linux 
generally, and I'm happy with its success, but it is also truly awful 
(WRT its format). My only defense is that I'm completely self-taught 
where this stuff is concerned, I'm a musician by training and 
inclination, and I have no time to learn even the simplest things about 
PHP (or Perl or Python or any of sixty other things I'd like to learn). 
I'm half-way through the 2nd edition of my book (yes, LilyPond will 
receive due diligence in it ;), I have remaining obligations to AGNULA, 
I continue to write occasionally for Linux Journal, and I have an active 
teaching and performance schedule.

Btw, the mirrors for my site have been provided for free by the service 
providers. I owe much thanks to Matt Probst, Kenji Yasaka, and Georg 
Hitsch for their assistance and generosity, which is another reason I've 
kept the site relatively free of ads. I've passed the savings on to the 
customers... ;-)

Also btw: Jan, you were far from rude, and I appreciate your good humor. 
You really do have to poke me sometimes to make me move...

Finally, a note to all: If you get the chance to see/hear Han-wen do a 
presentation on LilyPond, be sure to go. He's a natural at 
presentations, and he stops at nothing at getting and keeping a crowd 
(in Metz last year he was literally grabbing strangers in the hallways, 
telling them that they *must* hear about LilyPond). The presentation 
itself is most informative and interesting, and I can almost guarantee 
he'll make a LilyPond convert out of you.

Best,

dp