Re: Figured bass Documentation issue

[Laura Conrad]

>>>>> "Graham" == Graham Percival <address@hidden> writes:

    Graham> On 24-Nov-04, at 6:27 AM, Laura Conrad wrote:
    >> There might be better words to use than "eats".

    Graham> I don't understand how FiguredBass works, but how's this?

    Graham> Figured bass is created by the FiguredBass context which
    Graham> responds to figured bass requests and rest-requests.  You
    Graham> must enter these using the special @code{\figuremode @{
    Graham> @}} mode, which allows you to type numbers, like @code{<4
    Graham> 6+>}.

    Graham> "eats" -> "responds to"

    Graham> If that's a better way of phrasing it, I'll commit it.


>>>>> "Han-Wen" == Han-Wen Nienhuys <address@hidden> writes:

    >> If that's a better way of phrasing it, I'll commit it.

    Han-Wen> Yes, this is correct, as can be deduced from the internals
    Han-Wen> information.


I'll try again.  I'm not interested in a semantic discussion of the
precise meaning of "documentation", "Example", or "regression test".
The point I was trying to make, which neither Han-Wen nor Graham
addresses is that it was possible with the information that shipped
with lily 1.6 to figure out how to add a line of figures to a bass
line without completely rewriting and reproofreading the values of the
notes in the bass line.   It is no longer possible to do that in 2.0
or 2.4.  

In 1.6, there was an explanation that led me to a working method that
made sense.  This explanation was in the input/test directory in 1.6,
and has since been moved to input/test/regression, but I agree that it
would make the most sense to have it in the figured bass section of
the manual.  

I also agree with Graham that there should be more and better
examples, and if anyone wants to use my stuff, or simplified versions
of my stuff in constructing such examples, they are welcome to do so.

But it's not whether the verb in the explanation should be eats or
responds to that I'm talking about, it's whether the object of the
verb should be "note-requests and rest-requests" as it was in the 1.6
"stuff", or "figured bass requests and rest-requests" as it is now,
and as you're proposing to leave.  If you don't make it clear that the
Figured Bass context can contain notes, it makes it very difficult for
anyone to figure out that it can be written by putting the figures on
an existing bass line.  Neither the example in the manual nor the
regression test contains a single note without a figure on it, so it's
not possible to deduce from them directly how write a typical score,
where many or often most of the notes don't have figures on them.

-- 
Laura (mailto:address@hidden , http://www.laymusic.org/ )
(617) 661-8097  fax: (501) 641-5011
233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139