# Addressing Some Comments
21 August 2023

In this post, I just would like to answer on some common questions about Unison, reply on comments and provide a more detailed explanation of what Unison is and what it is not. I also would be happy to explains some of my decision I made so far and share insights into where I am heading. ### Unison Is Not LilyPond You're probably familiar with such tool as [LilyPond](http://lilypond.org/). It's a text-based program that takes a text input and renders musical scores. What's interesting about this program is that it's free, and moreover you can find it as open source, allowing you to contribute to the community's development and improvement. You can even create your own version. Let's take a look at the simple example: 
\score {
  \new Staff { \relative c' {
      \clef treble \time 4/4 \key bes \major
      bes4( c d ees) f( g a bes) \bar "||"
}}}
The input above renders following image:
In order to render the same music score in Unison, you would need to type something like: 
font size is 15
page line width is 600
page top padding is 6
page bottom padding is 6

measure
key signature is g minor
time signature is c
treble clef
b3 c d e

measure
ends with double barline
f g a b with stem down

slur in first measure from unit 1 to unit 4, with roundness 6
slur above in second measure from unit 1 to unit 4
And as a result you will get following SVG image:
As you can see, text inputs are quite different. If you like commands with special characters like back slashes, different types of braces and other symbols that make the text more compact, then by all means, you should go and use LilyPond. On the other hand, if you prefer straightforward highlighted text with explicit and well-structured commands, without any special characters, you would likely favor Unison over LilyPond. I am trying to be honest here. I understand that some people really like to be more compact whenever it's possible. But the reason why I created a new language is because I wanted clean design, which could be extremely easy to understand by any musician, even if you're not familiar with this language. If you learn more about the two presented languages, you will understand why one may prefer the language in Unison. The reason is quite simple—it's just more expandable. You can easily render slurs in LilyPond if your notes are on the same staff. However, it would not work the same way in a case when they are on different staves. This is why I believe Unison is much more powerful and elegant, as its commands are quite flexible for different types of scenarios. Also, you can clearly see that the outputs are different. Unison allows you to easily define styles for your whole page; additionally, you can more precisely control the shape of your elements such as slurs. Unison simply gives you more freedom, which also allows you to not be afraid of mistakes. Creating incomplete pieces or drafts in Unison is much easier. I've heard many comments stating that I am just trying to sell originally free software with a different name. This is not true. Unison is a completely different piece of software; it has its own unique language and does not use LilyPond under the hood. Unison uses its own page schema and rendering engine, which are based on completely unique principles in terms of structure and mechanics. It has a powerful online editor with text highlighting, command autocompletion, and a navigation system between the text and the image rendered by that text. ### Unison Actually Has Free Version Unison has \[[Sandbox](/../html/project.html?shareable=true&iframe=true&name=sandbox-project)\], which is absolutely free. You can use it for rendering as many pages as you wish. The only limitation is that you don't have a hosted service where you can store your scores, share them, and access them from any device ### Unison Is Not Greedy The reason Unison is not free as a hosting service is due to the costs involved in maintaining infrastructure for backend services, as well as the expenses associated with renting servers. Another obvious reason is that I am trying to build a business around Unison. In order to maintain really high quality and sustain it throughout the years, I need to spend tons of hours and effort to do that. I've been doing that for almost 4 years (at the moment of writing this post), while also making a living as a software engineer. Making a profit is extremely important for me and for the project. Because when people pay you, it puts pressure to deliver. Also, by making enough profit from Unison, I can fully focus on it and make even more significant progress. It's very easy to give something only for free and do your job as just a side thing. I am extremely serious about Unison. I am working very hard to make it the best software for engraving and composing music. ### Unison Is Not Open Source At least, for now, it's not. I will probably start releasing different parts of Unison when I can find more time, but most likely I will not be involved in discussions with other programmers very often, and most likely I will release those parts just so people can copy them and continue on their own. I have a quite unique style of coding, and I prefer to work on my own. I enjoy having complete control over every aspect of my project; this gives me a sense of focus that allows me to tackle even the tiniest of problems extremely efficiently. It would not be worthwhile for me to collaborate with other programmers, as I simply do not enjoy working with them (no offense intended). For me, programming is akin to writing. It's quite easy to understand why certain writers don't collaborate with others to create a book. They want their personal space, the freedom to work at their own pace, and most importantly, the joy of writing alone without any distractions. I do understand that without open source, Unison would not be possible. That's why I've made many great libraries and frameworks that I also use in Unison. You can check my [GitHub](https://github.com/guseyn) to learn more. I'll keep contributing to the community as much as I can. However, having the space to work on my own is also really important to me. ### Unison Is the Project of My Life Unison has kind of [connected many dots](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1.5.164BSbOc5VYY8) and skills I've picked up throughout my life. Music, math, programming, Domain Specific Languages, web development and design, writing, pitching, the desire to be an entrepreneur, and staying consistent – all these things I genuinely love, and they're all crucial for bringing this project to life. It feels like a blessing. Honestly, I'm not too concerned about whether this project succeeds or not because I'm already incredibly proud of what I've accomplished. ### What's Next Well, right now I am working on MIDI export + playback for music scores. I feel like I can realease new functionality in the near future. Also, I will continue to promote and talk about Unison by writing posts, creating webinars, speaking with composers, and gathering their feedback. **P.S.:** Unison has nothing to do with Unison Audio organization/product.