Re: \context foo = "bar" vs. \new foo

[Graham Percival]

On 11-Feb-06, at 2:49 AM, Erik Sandberg wrote:

> On Friday 10 February 2006 21.47, Don Blaheta wrote:
> > Would it make sense to permit \new Foo = "bar", but have it be an 
> > error
> > if a "bar" context already existed?

That's exactly what I'm hoping for.  :)

> > I'm not proposing that \context Foo = "bar" *couldn't* create a new
> > context, though, as I don't think there's any error-checking benefit 
> > to
> > that and it would break all the old files.

Again, exactly.

> Maybe \context could be renamed to something else, such as \addto 
> Staff=bar,
> since its primary use will be to append music to an existing context. 
> The
> word "context" might sound scary/technical to a beginner.

How much do beginners need to use \context, though?  (if we allow \new 
Voice="alto")
(this question is aimed at vocal music, since I've only used \context 
*once* in all my string writing, that that was a pretty weird case)
Right now beginners need to use \context for vocal voices, and can 
either use \context or \new for all the other stuff.  If we allow \new 
Voice="alto", then AFAIK beginners can use \new for everything.  
\context would only be used for playing fancy games with stuff.

If we keep \context as it is, we avoid adding another rule to 
convert-ly and getting accused of breaking backwards compatibility 
again.  :)
(particularly since convert-ly won't know if a \context should be 
turned into \new or \addto)

Cheers,
- Graham