Re: Reorganize language files and add a new \language command. (issue2699041)

[Valentin Villenave]

On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 3:57 AM,  <address@hidden> wrote:
> Update the \version string in all of these files!

Well, I was reluctant to put a minor version number. Do you think
putting "2.14.0" would be okay?

> Then, the argument to your music function would not be a string, but
> rather a symbol:
>
> \language #'italiano

I did consider it. However, I have three reasons not to use symbols:
- from a user perspective, typing "italiano" is slightly more
straightforward than typing #'italiano. Remember, this function is
intended for newcomers, who wouldn't even use music variables or
\score blocks, let alone \overrides, boolean or symbols!
- this also allows me to treat the given argument as case-insensitive.
- last but not least, if we ever do implement the \language command as
a parser token, taking a simple-string argument, then almost no
changes will be needed (if anything, the "foobar" syntax will still
work, but plain \language foobar, without quotes, will also be
possible).

That being said, I can indeed nest all the alists together, without
necessarily using a (symbol?) argument: string->symbol is reliable
enough A new patchset is on its way..

> That way we don't have to mess with strings and string comparisons, we
> just use symbols.

Well, I hope I made my point about using strings. I'm pretty hopeful
that string->symbol does a reliable enough of a job to not qualify as
"messy" :-)