Re: Substitute for s1*0

[Keith OHara]

Trevor Daniels <t.daniels <at> treda.co.uk> writes:

> My point really is that <> exists now, so there ought to
> be a short note in the section where chords are introduced
> to say that an empty chord takes no time, whatever the
> current duration happens to be.  

I agree with Trevor.  And with David in liking <>

s1*0 is useful for markup at the beginning of a 
multimeasure rest, quote, or cue, or at the end of a music 
as in "D.S.alCoda".  In these cases, the next note needs 
an explicit duration anyway.

Some people write triplets without the '3' as {c8*2/3 d e} 
so they depend on LilyPond remembering the *n/m with the 
duration.

<> is less transparent, because a thoughtful user would 
expect it to have the same duration of the previous note 
or chord, or to be a syntax error.

On the other hand, 
1) the chord construct is more familiar than skips and 
   mulitplied durations are not familiar at all.
2) empty constructs are familiar from 
   \score { ... \layout{} \midi{}}
3) its leaving the former default duration unchanged makes 
   it more generally useful:
{ <>\mf \motif c4 d e f <>\p^"softer now" \motif g f e d}

So <> is a more helpful example for users than s1*0 was, 
if the special case of its duration is noted in NR 1.5.1 

Giving it a notation like 'n' for aesthetic purposes would 
be putting lipstick on a pig.