#author Shelagh Manton
#date
#title LilyPond-mode usage (LilyPond-Templates)



** Notes for this selection of files.

Notes on how to use the Lilypond-templates package as well as some brief notes on
how to better use LilyPond-mode in emacs.

** Installing this package

These files set up a system of menus for some templates I wrote to make
it easy to use LilyPond for the new user.  To install them, put them in a folder where
emacs can find them.  For instance in =~/.elisp/site-lisp/LilyPond= .  Then tell emacs where
it is by writing in your =.emacs= or =.emacs.d/init.el= file (if you are on Windows
especially)

        =(eval-after-load "LilyPond-mode" (load-library
                   "~/Path/to/your/lilypond-skeletons.el"))=


*** My personal LilyPond setup

looks like this:

      =(autoload 'LilyPond-mode "lilypond-mode" "LilyPond Editing Mode" t)=
      =(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.ly$" . LilyPond-mode))=
      =(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.ily$" . LilyPond-mode))=

      =;; adds ~/.elisp/lyqi in the load path
      (setq load-path (cons (expand-file-name "~/.elisp/site-lisp/lyqi") load-path))=
      =;; when loading LilyPond-mode, lyqi-mode library will also be loaded.=
      =;; type `C-c q' in LilyPond-mode to switch to lyqi-mode.=

      =(eval-after-load "LilyPond-mode"=
         ='(progn=
            =(load-library "lyqi-mode")=
            =(define-key LilyPond-mode-map "\C-cq" 'lyqi-mode)=
            =(define-key LilyPond-mode-map [tab] 'LilyPond-autocompletion)=
            =(load-library "lilypond-skeletons")=
            =(lambda () (turn-on-font-lock))))=

** General Emacs LilyPond-mode advice

*** Using the LilyPond info files

To get the most out of the LilyPond info files you need to make sure they are in your info
path. If they are not in a standard place, which often it seems they are not, find where
they are in the files system and the write the following.
=(setq Info-additional-directory-list (quote ("/path/to/info/dir")))= in your .emacs file.

*** Some cool things that can help you write your LilyPond files.

**** Completion
If you are using a word "LilyPond-mode" knows about ie "inbuilt" functions, you can
=M-TAB= to complete the word.

**** Counting the beat
When you are in a complex rhythmic passage and you have lost your idea of how many beats
there are to a bar "LilyPond-what-beat" will do the counting for you.  Put in a =|= which
marks the beginning and end of a bar and =\C-c b= on each note or after each note to see how
many beats you need to have in the bar or whether the note you thought was on 3/4 beat
actually is.  Try it, this is a cool feature.

**** Dabbrev -- this is a general emacs thing. (info "(Emacs) Dynamic Abbrevs")
If you have already used a word or term in your LilyPond source file you can write the
first couple of letters and then press  =M-/= to complete it.  How good would that be; instead of
writing out Hallelujah ten times in a file?  As dabbrev can look in all open buffers, if the
word you're looking for isn't in the current buffer keep =M-/= to cycle through the words
that begin with the letters you've written so far.

**** Abbrevs -- another general emacs thing (info "(Emacs) Abbrevs")

You can set up a system of "abbrevs" or autocorrect in emacs that can make your life easy
if you want to put in the same phrases such as, say your full name in the composer field. 
Or as I do, as an automatic spelling fixer.  I put the frequently mis-spelled word and its
correction in my abbrevs file. Read the info file for more information.  It can be global
(ie for every text file you use) or local to the mode (specialist terms you may never use
anywhere else).  So if you always spell "with" -> "wtih" tell "abbrevs" to change it back to
what you need.  If you are reading this in emacs just evaluate that last s-expression to
go directly to the info node that gives you all the juice on abbrevs.  See next entry.


*** Getting help with the templates

**** Evaluating expressions
If I've put an expression in the template like this
=(info "(LilyPond) Bagpipe")= you can put the cursor just after the last parenthesis
and =C-x C-e= to evaluate it.  Then if you have the LilyPond info files in the
path (see above) the page in the LilyPond info that deal with bagpipes will
open up in the other buffer for your perusal.

There is also built-in help from LilyPond-mode itself.  If you put the cursor over the word
you want to inspect, you can then =\C-c TAB= to get a context sensitive page in the
LilyPond info documents.

Recently, someone on the mailing list discovered a bug in LilyPond-mode that means that
the =M-TAB= key does not work as it should to auto-complete keywords and other LilyPond
terms.  If you put

 =(define-key LilyPond-mode-map [tab] 'LilyPond-autocompletion)=

in your LilyPond-hook auto-completion finally works.  See My personal settings above for my
settings which now include this hack.

*** Customizing the LilyPond-templates package

If you don't want to have all the templates available, ie if you are only interested in the
piano templates, you can =M-x customize-group RET LilyPond= to find the variables for
turning off the various menus.  Just put "nil" for the set of templates you are not
interested in and the menus for them will disappear.  The variables have names like
"LilyPond-vocal-templates-p".  All of the templates are available by default.