LilyPond 2.3.0 released

[Han-Wen Nienhuys]

Hello there!

LilyPond 2.3.0 is the first release in the 2.3 cycle. Hopefully, this
branch will be a short-lived one, and we will move to a stable version
3.0 as soon as possible.  The focus for 2.3 is page layout, so
instrumentalists can force parts to have page breaks at sane turning
points. 

To achieve this, Jan has completely rewired the output logic and
titling code, while I fidgeted a little with encodings for the input
and the fonts. An example is in
input/mutopia/W.A.Mozart/mozart-hrn-3. With the new page layout code,
LilyPond fits this piece onto 4 pages instead of 5.

This release marks the end of an era for me. For the past years I've
hacked on LilyPond during my (PhD)study and unemployment. Tomorrow, I
will start a regular job as logistics consultant, which means that
from now on I won't be able to fix LilyPond bugs within the hour.



New features in 2.3 since 2.2
*****************************

   * The parser is encapsulated in a Scheme function `ly:parse-file',
     so the following fragment processes two files


       #(ly:parse-file "another.ly")
       \score { \notes  { c4 }}

   * The `font-encoding' property can now be used to select
     differently encoded fonts. The previous default setting
     `TeX-text' has been replaced by latin1. LilyPond requires the
     ec-fonts-mftraced package
     (http://www.lilypond.org/download/fonts/) installed to function
     properly.

   * The encoding of a file can be switched with `\encoding'. The
     strings for markup texts are translated automatically.

   * The toplevel block `book' introduces page layout.  A `book' groups
     `score' blocks into one page layout entity.  Page layout consists
     of markup titles, headers and footers, and page breaking.  Two
     page breaking algorithms are available, the classic ragged pages
     (the default), and optimal page breaking

          \paper {
              %% Select page breaking function.
              %% #(define page-breaking ly:ragged-page-breaks)
              #(define page-breaking ly:optimal-page-breaks)
          }
          \book {
               \score { ... }
               \score { ... }
          }

     The `lilypond' program does not generate LaTeX titles or page
     layout.  If you need LaTeX titles, you can use the `lilypond-book'
     program.

   * There is now less of a noticeable "hook" at the end of a long slur.

   * The meaning of the `|' in the input can be redefined, by
     assigning a music expression to `pipeSymbol'.



(The ChangeLog is too long to include here.)

-- 

 Han-Wen Nienhuys   |   address@hidden   |   http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen