Re: [GLISS] verbifying music functions

[Keith OHara]

Graham Percival <graham <at> percival-music.ca> writes:

> Let's have a look at verbifying music functions.
> [and special-cases that look just like music functions to the user]

Most pre-fix functions do seem to be verbs expressing what we want LilyPond
to do to the following music.   The exceptions

> appoggiatura     => \addAppoggiatura ?  not nice

> clef

are nouns because they are themselves the notation. 

The implementation is that \appogiatura transforms the following music into
an appogiatura, but we think of the appogiatura as the main concept, and
the pitches describing the appogiatura.  

Similarly the \clef "treble_8"

The ones with obvious changes to verbs, really should be verbs to help 
us remember that they do something to the following music

> balloonText       => \addBalloonText

I would go so far as

bookOutputName     =>  setBookOutputName

So I like your original concept of verbifying prefix functions, tempered 
by letting those that create notation unattached to any notes, be the nouns 
that name the notation.

I might be biased being a native English speaker.  However, when I work 
in other languages I am *more* conscious of which words are nouns, verbs, 
particles, etc.