
<section id="PrefaceHistory">
  <title>History of the Canonical Csound Reference Manual</title>
  <para>
    This initial version of this manual for early versions of Csound was started at MIT by &namebarry; and maintained there during the 1980's and start of the 1990's. Some of the manual comes from documents for programs like <emphasis>Music11</emphasis> from the 1970's. This original manual was improved and worked on by Richard Boulanger, &namejohn;, Jean Pich&eacute; and &namerasmus;.
  </para>
  <para>
    This manual led to the Official Csound Reference Manual, still located at: <ulink
    url="http://www.lakewoodsound.com/csound/hypertext/manual.htm">
    <citetitle>http://www.lakewoodsound.com/csound</citetitle></ulink>, 
    for Csound version 4.16, November, 1999, which was maintained by &namedavid;.
  </para>
  <para>A parallel version of the manual called the Alternative Csound Reference Manual, was developed by
    &namekevin; using <ulink
    url="http://www.docbook.org/"><citetitle>DocBook/SGML</citetitle></ulink>. This version later became the Canonical version.
  </para>
  <para>
    When Csound was licenced as LGPL by MIT in 2003, the manual was licenced GFDL and placed on Sourceforge along with the sources of Csound.
  </para>
  <para>
    In the winter of 2004, the Canonical Manual was converted to DocBook/XML by &namesteven; 
    to allow for more people to be able to compile and maintain the manual.
  </para>
  <para>
    The manual is currently maintained by François Pinot, Menno Knevel and Stefano Cucchi
    with continuous contributions from the Csound Community. The French version of the manual is maintained by François Pinot.
  </para>
  <para>
    The manual continues to be a community run project that depends on the contributions
    of developers and users to help refine the coverage and accuracy of its contents. 
    All contributions are welcome and appreciated.
  </para>
  <table frame="none" colsep="0">
    <title>Other Contributors</title>
    <tgroup cols="1">
      <tbody>
        <row><entry>Mike Berry </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Ricard Boulanger</entry></row>
        <row><entry>David M. Booth</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Oeyvind Brandtsegg</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Eli Breder </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Andr&eacute;as Cabrera </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Michael Casey </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Michael Clark </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Kevin Conder</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Perry Cook </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Sean Costello </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Stefano Cucchi </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Richard Dobson </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Mark Dolson </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Gareth Edwards</entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namerasmus;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Dan Ellis </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Tom Erbe </entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namejohn;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Bill Gardner </entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namemichael;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Joachim Heintz</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Matt Ingalls </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Richard Karpen </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Menno Knevel </entry></row>
        <row><entry>&nameanthony;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namevictor;  </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Allan Lee</entry></row>
        <row><entry>David Macintyre </entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namegabriel;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Max Mathews </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Hans Mikelson </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Peter Neub&auml;cker </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Peter Nix </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Peter Nix </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Jean Pich&eacute; </entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namepinot;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Ville Pulkki </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Maurizio Umberto Puxeddu </entry></row>
        <row><entry>John Ramsdell </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Marc Resibois </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Felipe Sateler</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Rob Shaw </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Paris Smaragdis </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Greg Sullivan </entry></row>
        <row><entry>&nameistvan;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Bill Verplank </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Kevi Welsh </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Robin Whittle </entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namesteven;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>And many others.</entry></row>
      </tbody>
    </tgroup>
  </table>
  <para>
    This list is by no means complete. More information can be gathered from the Changelog file in the manual's sources repository.
  </para>

</section>
