Re: User-poll about lily-syntax: results - [Was: [GLISS] basics]

[Joram Berger]

Some comments from my usage experience.

Am 12.11.2012 12:27, schrieb David Kastrup:
> Francisco Vila <address@hidden> writes:
...
>>  The fundamental question for an user (and he thinks it is for all new
>>  users, too) was to realize that lilypond is a programming
>>  language. Every syntax is more or less complex, and it would be
>>  useless to question it without a big amount of judgement elements.
> 
> But LilyPond should rather be a music description language.  It is great
> if it is easy to extend programmatically, but the purpose of those
> extensions is, again, to be able to write down just "what one means" in
> every instance rather than how it is done (which one needs to write down
> at least once if LilyPond does not yet know it, but which should be the
> exception rather than the rule).
+1

>>  Handling page spacing is unclear.
> 
> Part of the problem is that our interface is too low-level to be
> intuitive, I think.

annotate-spacing does not show all the available spacings (e.g.
horizontal spacing). I haven't understood the spacing enough to suggest
how I would improve it, but I want to state that I find it difficult.

What I am missing is a clear description which settings I can/should
adjust (that includes which lengths are calculated from others, which
ones are fixed and which ones are staff size dependent).
I think a change in the last months improved things, but I find it still
unclear how to do it right.

This is not in order to get help, but to describe a bit what I am
struggling with:
Often only two systems fit on the first page and I would want three
there. And in cases where really only 2 systems fit on it, I would like
to use more space for the title.

>> 3 Something unconvenient or cumbersome?
>>
>>  Adding lyrics to a melody is in practice more tedious than what
>>  appears to be from reading the manuals. Manuals do not explain this
>>  point clearly enough.
> 
> I am not sure we should not show the possibility to just use lyrics with
> explicit durations more prominently.  It's straightforward and more
> robust than having to associate some context.
I never had problems with single lines of lyrics aligned to music and I
very much apreciate the functionality to associate it to a voice.

But already *repeats* are a bit unintuitive.
Would \repeat and \alternative make sense for lyrcis, too? (adding a new
line of lyrics below with correct placement* in alternatives, and
without \new Lyrics)

*Extender lines* (__) for tied notes could be (optionally) automatically
introduced whenever a tied note occurs. These often remain the only
thing to add by hand in the lyrics.
In addition, extender lines below long notes (e.g. wholes) could make
sense from occationally, but do not work currently:

note      barline
  o         |
 text ____

Cheers,
Joram