Re: shortened Hairpin hack; how to get "width" of current ChordEvent?

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi, Anthony:

>         {g1}
>         {s2\> s4\! s}

Yeah, that's the messiness I'm trying to avoid!  =)

My second method was

    g1*7/8\> s1*1/8\!

which is messy in different ways (though less messy overall,  
perhaps?). I prefer the former method for the fact that it doesn't  
mess with the "virtual durations" in any way, but I like the latter  
because it doesn't spawn an extra Voice just to deal with a visual/ 
formatting construct.

I guess I just think it should be easier/cleaner, somehow, to stop an  
event (e.g., a spanner) partway through another event. Don't get me  
wrong -- it's not that I think it's easy to come up with a syntax  
that covers all (or even nearly all) possibilities, never mind the  
code to parse it. Just brainstorming it as I type here, I suppose a  
syntax like

    g1\>2

for a whole note g with a half-note length decrescendo might be very  
nice. Then

    g1\> g\!

would act as it always has, and

    g1\>{4 2}

would give a hairpin starting one quarter note after the main note  
and having a duration of a half-note.

I have no idea how complicated all that would be (for the programming  
side of it), but I always go by the principle that it's usually  
better to sacrifice complexity on the code (programmer's) side in  
order to simplify things from the input (user's) perspective.

Maybe the new MusicStream approach will offer some assistance here?

Anyway, just thinking out loud, really...  =)

Best,
Kieren.