
<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 &nameandres; with continuous contributions from the Csound Community.
  </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>Eli Breder </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Michael Casey </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Michael Clark </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Perry Cook </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Sean Costello </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Richard Dobson </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Mark Dolson </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Dan Ellis </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Tom Erbe </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Bill Gardner </entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namemichael;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Matt Ingalls </entry></row>
        <row><entry>Richard Karpen </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>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>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>Robin Whittle </entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namesteven;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namepinot;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>&nameandres;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Gareth Edwards</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Joachim Heintz</entry></row>
        <row><entry>&namejohn;</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Oeyvind Brandtsegg</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Menno Knevel</entry></row>
        <row><entry>Felipe Sateler</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>
