Re: VerticalAlignment in PianoStaff

[Atte Andre Jensen]

On Tue, 13 Aug 2002, Mats Bengtsson wrote:

> > Here:
> >
> > http://www.lilypond.org/development/Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond/Vertical-spacing.html#Vertical%20spacing
> >
> > I read:
> >
> > ... If you want to override this, use a
> > \translator block as follows:
> >
> > ...
> >
> > Great! But I can't figure out where to put the code... Asumed it was just
> > after my \context PianoStaff but that gives me an "error: parse error,
> > expecting `STRING':" on the "{" in the above code.
> >
> > Newbies like me really need to see stuff in context to get the big
> > picture, so is someone could post a working .ly with VertivalAlignment *in
> > PianoStaff*, that would be extremely helpful.
>
> I understand your point of view. Still, it would make the manual
> three times as big if we added a full detailed example of each
> feature in the manual.

That's not what I'm talking about! Replacing the existing example:

\translator {
\PianoStaffContext
VerticalAlignment \override #'forced-distance = #9
}

with something like what Jérémie gave me:

\score {
  \context PianoStaff \notes <
      [...]

  >
  \paper {
     \translator {
        \PianoStaffContext
        VerticalAlignment \override #'forced-distance = #9
     }
  }
}

or even just:

\paper {
   \translator {
      \PianoStaffContext
      VerticalAlignment \override #'forced-distance = #9
   }

or even-even just change the text from:

"If you want to override this, use a \translator block as follows"

to

"If you want to override this, use a \translator block in the \paper
section as follows"

Either one of those would have been enough for me.

Another thing about the doc in general. I now realize the info is there
indeed, what really put me on the right track was Grahams reply to my "A
whole bunch of questions" mail, esp this small bit:

"Read that "fine tuning" section -- it really bridges the gap between
novice and intermediate users."

I even though that maybe what is called reference manual now is more like
a faq. One simple way to solve the confusion for newcommers would be to ad
- maybe as the very first item under manual - a section on "how to use
this manual", directing people to the places that will answer their
specefic class of questions.

> The only reasonable solution is to describe the general principles
> of how to modify the layout and make it easy to find this information.

Yeah, that's what I mean: "and make it easy to find this information",
that's the key.

> At the moment, the "Fine tuning a piece" section of the Tutorial or
> the "Tuning output" section of the Reference manual don't even
> mention the possibility of setting properties globally in the
> \paper section.

> What we really should have is something like the following
> picture over different possibilities:
>
> - General change for all the score: Set in the paper block
> - Change for a short duration and/or single line: \property ...
> - Change an object that's already created: \outputproperty ...
> - ???: \apply a Scheme function.

Agree... I guess the hand-on approach favored in the doc works for some
people, but I always end up staring at the same stupid 5 lines of code
that will *almost* do what I need, trying to figure out why the changes I
apply doesn't work. Examples and tutorials are very nice, but the
overview/theory-behind-it is also needed IMHO.

-- 
peace, love & harmony
Atte