Re: names of vertical spacing dimensions

[Trevor Daniels]

David Kastrup wrote Thursday, October 14, 2010 8:42 AM


> Carl Sorensen <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > On 10/13/10 2:40 PM, "David Kastrup" <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> > > The point is that we want a sane way of specifying document 
> > > layout
> > > parameters.  The current naming scheme resembles that desire. 
> > > The
> > > current code not.  Adapting the naming scheme to the 
> > > deficiencies of
> > > the code is going the wrong way in my opinion.
> >
> > As far as I can see, we have no plans to change the code.

And certainly not before 2.14 is released.  So the
decision we have to make is what documentation we
place in the 2.14 release.

> Let me put it bluntly: the new scheme cements the decision to make
> markups and titles have the same spacing.
>
> A score followed by a title needs a solid amount of spacing and is 
> an
> excellent position for a page break.
>
> A score followed by an editorial note "* this may be f# instead" 
> needs a
> small amount of spacing and is an awfully bad position for a page 
> break.
>
> If those cases are treated the same, it is a bug.  We are now
> transplanting this bug from the code into the user interface where 
> it
> will be rather cemented.

Although this is a good point, the problem is not as
stark as this might suggest.  There are many situations
when writing LilyPond code when score-wide settings are
inappropriate.  This is just another.  \override permits
appropriate setting to be made at each point in the score.
Variables or music functions can be used to make this
less painful, e.g. \editorialNote could be defined to set
the spacing parameters, set \noPageBreak, print the
following markup and then revert the spacing parameters.

> I don't think that this is a sensible change for 2.14.

I do.  If at some time in the future the code is changed
to recognise the distinction between a title and a footnote
the names of the new spacing parameters would naturally
follow the new naming pattern, although I think that change
is unlikely to happen.

Trevor