Re: Various clean-ups in stems and beams. (issue 6584045)

[address@hidden]

On 2 oct. 2012, at 16:42, address@hidden wrote:

> What I mean is that if something like
> 
> {
> \override NoteHead #'style = #'kievan
> c'8
> }
> 
> produces a quarter note in the output, the user is likely to be
> thoroughly confused.

Is this because of the duration-log override?  NoteHead #'duration-log for 
Kievan notation should be a separate function that is not based on style (this 
is what I propose in my patch).

> 
> If NoteHead and Stem properties are set up in engraver-init.ly, then if
> the user wants a Kievan NoteHead somewhere other than in a KievanVoice
> context, he will need to set up other overrides in addition to NoteHead
> style.
> 

Why can't we have commands \startKievan and \stopKievan that do all the 
overrides simultaneously?

For example, the command \hideNotes groups together several overrides.  I think 
it would be a mistake to make \override NoteHead #'transparent also control 
Dots and Stems by default.  It's better to have a global command that groups 
together all these overrides.

> This is different from other ancient notations in the sense that if I
> do, e.g.,
> {
> \override NoteHead #'style = #'mensural
> }
> 
> things work as expected. Of course, Mensural notation is simpler in the
> sense that it lacks beams and specialized eighth heads.
> 
> I think it would be best if setting NoteHead style to Kievan would set
> the necessary duration-log and Stem properties, but I am not sure how
> that would be implemented given the clean-ups that Mike is proposing
> with this patch.

I think it's important to keep properties as separate as possible.  For 
example, take the command arpeggioParenthesisDashed.  In theory, we could make 
it such that arpeggio has a style property that'd set all these things, but 
it's better to keep them as separate overrides to various parameters.  Same for 
easyHeadsOn, improvisationOn, and tabFullNotation.  A command like \startKievan 
or \kievanOn or whatever should work like this.

Cheers,
MS