Using Unicode symbols for accidentals

[Pavel Roskin]

Hello!

It's not exactly a bug, more like a feature request :)

I have noticed that convert-ly removes the \encoding and converts
everything to UTF-8.  So I hoped I could use some Unicode symbols to
make the sources more compact and readable:

\version "2.14.2"
\score {
  \new Staff { d♭8 f♯ }
  \layout { }
}

Unfortunately, it doesn't work:

GNU LilyPond 2.14.2
Processing `utf8.ly'
Parsing...
utf8.ly:3:15: error: syntax error, unexpected STRING
  \new Staff { 
               d♭8 f♯ }
utf8.ly:3:2: error: errors found, ignoring music expression
  
  \new Staff { d♭8 f♯ }
error: failed files: "utf8.ly"

I think it would be great to support Unicode symbols for accidentals.
They make the code more compact.  They are international.  They
could be recognized in any language, which would be great for the
included scripts, such as predefined-fretboards.ly.  f♯ is shorter
and more readable than fsharp, let alone fis.

Maybe we could even allow writing chords by gluing notes together and
redefining angle brackets for some other task.  Compare:

ce♭g  vs  <c ees g>

Unicode symbols for accidentals can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Music

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin