Re: did shaped note support ever get added?

[Mats Bengtsson]

Jonathan Walther wrote:
> More than two years ago, someone on this list said they were working on
> shaped note support.  Did this ever get added in?  I need it for current
> and future projects.
>
> I am visiting a Mennonite denomination that still uses the Aiken shaped
> note system for their hymnal.  I'd like to convert some of their hymns
> to lilypond format.  I also have a composer friend who is composing
> hymns, but for most members of this denomination to be able to sing
> them, they have to be in shaped note format.
>
> Having Sacred Harp shaped note support would also be nice.  There are
> some old hymns I want to add to my new churches hymnal.
>
> Is support for this planned, or present?  There are a lot of old hymns
> I'm itching to get typeset, and then tweak to match modern theology for
> Sunday usage by large congregations.

Not that I know of!
It shouldn't be so hard to do if you are good at programming in
Metafont (to implement the font symbols) and Scheme (to write a
function that changes the note head depending on the pitch).

Just as some other feature requests that pop up on the mailing list,
the feature would be useful to a fairly narrow group of users, so it
is hard to justify any major effort to add and support that feature
compared to solving problems that still remain, related to traditional
notation. On the other hand, if you are interested and have the
competence, or can convince somebody who has the competence, it's just
to go ahead and implement it.

   /Mats