Quoted text (was Re: When is "-" required in articulations?)

[Trevor Daniels]

Graham Percival wrote May 22, 2008 11:39 AM
> On Thu, 22 May 2008 09:46:15 +0100
> "Trevor Daniels" <address@hidden> wrote:
> > Valentin Villenave wrote May 22, 2008 9:03 AM
> > > "Markup expressions may also be enclosed in double quotes "...".
> > > Such expressions are treated as text strings and may not contain
> > > nested expressions or commands. Therefore, braces are generally
> > > prefered to double quotes."
> > >
> > > Actually, it would be nice if we had a specific name for such
> > > objects. Graham told me to find something but neither he or I could
> > > come up with a smart solution.
>
> IMO we should invent a term, and use it consistently throughout
> the docs.
>
> I'm just throwing out some terms in case one of them causes
> somebody to think of something:
>
> Atomic text?   (denoting both single words and quoted text)
> Strings?  (bite the bullet: we can't avoid computerese
>  completely... although I admit that talking about "strings" to
>  musicians would be /very/ icky.

Especially string players ;)

>  I already have a hard enough time
>  describing my area of research)
> Immutable text?  (getting too complicated; we have a lot of ESL
>  readers.  Besides, I'm not even certain the word makes sense
>  here.)

I don't like any of these.

> Failing all else, I suppose we /could/ use the terms "markup text"
> and "quoted text".  I mean, there are more uses for these terms
> (whatever we end up calling them) than just c^\markup{foo} and
> c-"foo".  I'm thinking of things like
>  \set InstrumentName = #'"Bb clarinet"
> vs.
>  \set InstrumentName = \markup{ B\flat clarinet }

Are we looking for a name for -any- object which is
delimited by double quotes and contains literal text,
or a name for the textual annotation which is applied
to a note with '-', or even textual annotation which
can be applied to a note with either '-' or '\markup?
There is a difference.  For example the terms "text string"
or "quoted text" could be used for the former, as in

"specify the version with '\version' followed by the
version number as a text string" 

but not

"add textual annotation by appending a '-' followed
by a text string", 

as this excludes the possibility of dropping the quotes
if the text is a single alphabetic word.  So this would
need to be described by a different term.  (That's why
I used "text annotation" for this.)

> I'm still not wild about "quoted text", though.

Me neither.  But the advantage is that it describes
the essential characteristics of the object precisely -
the quotes and the nature of the content - to anyone
without requiring an explanation.

> Cheers,
> - Graham