Info Catalog lilypond-usage: Suggestions for writing files lilypond-usage: Typesetting existing music

lilypond-usage: General suggestions

 
 5.1 General suggestions
 =======================
 
 Here are a few suggestions that can help you to avoid or fix problems:
 
    • *Include ‘\version’ numbers in every file*.  Note that all
      templates contain ‘\version’ information.  We highly recommend that
      you always include the ‘\version’, no matter how small your file
      is.  Speaking from personal experience, it’s quite frustrating to
      try to remember which version of LilyPond you were using a few
      years ago.  ‘convert-ly’ requires you to declare which version of
      LilyPond you used.
 
    • *Include checks*: (lilypond-notation)Bar and bar number
      checks, (lilypond-notation)Octave checks.  If you include
      checks every so often, then if you make a mistake, you can pinpoint
      it quicker.  How often is ‘every so often’?  It depends on the
      complexity of the music.  For very simple music, perhaps just once
      or twice.  For very complex music, perhaps every bar.
 
    • *One bar per line of text*.  If there is anything complicated,
      either in the music itself or in the output you desire, it’s often
      good to write only one bar per line.  Saving screen space by
      cramming eight bars per line just isn’t worth it if you have to
      ‘debug’ your input files.
 
    • *Comment your input files*.  Use either bar numbers (every so
      often) or references to musical themes (‘second theme in violins,’
      ‘fourth variation,’ etc.).  You may not need comments when you’re
      writing the piece for the first time, but if you want to go back to
      change something two or three years later, or if you pass the
      source over to a friend, it will be much more challenging to
      determine your intentions or how your file is structured if you
      didn’t comment the file.
 
    • *Indent your braces*.  A lot of problems are caused by an imbalance
      in the number of ‘{’ and ‘}’.
 
    • *Explicitly add durations* at the beginnings of sections and
      variables.  If you specify ‘c4 d e’ at the beginning of a phrase
      (instead of just ‘c d e’) you can save yourself some problems if
      you rearrange your music later.
 
    • *Separate tweaks* from music definitions.  See 
      (lilypond-learning)Saving typing with variables and functions,
      and (lilypond-learning)Style sheets.
 

Info Catalog lilypond-usage: Suggestions for writing files lilypond-usage: Typesetting existing music