More alternate ending problems

[Laura Conrad]

I'm working on trying to make alternate endings readable in unbarred
parts.  There's probably a bug report I should file, because they are
quite often ambiguous.  I'm attaching the file I'm working on -- before
I file the report I'll create a simpler test file, but you can see what
I mean.

altus-part-expanded.ly
Description: Binary data

My problem is with the volta bracket over the first alternative in the C
section:

The alternative begins at the B dotted whole note, but the bracket can
be read by the casual observer as also including the C quarter note.

For some other problems like this, I've been using the 

    \once \override Staff.NoteHead #'X-extent = #'(-2 . 2) 

trick, which works if you have a note without a stem that's on the
staff, but for a note with a stem on a ledger line is really hideous.
(The ledger line gets extended, *and* the stem doesn't attach to the
head.)

So I'm trying the other suggestion I got the last time I asked a
question like this
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2011-03/msg00616.html>: 

  \override Staff.BarLine #'extra-spacing-width = #'(-8 . 8)

This works fine if there is in fact a barline where I want the bracket
to end (in fact, there isn't a problem because the volta bracket ends at
the bar line without tweaking), but in conjunction with '\bar "empty"',
it seems to do nothing at all.

So my question is really two parts:

   Is there a good workaround for the problem with the volta brackets
   being the wrong length?

   Failing that, is there a tweak I can use to enlarge the space left for an
   "empty" bar?  (This would actually be useful for something else I'm
   doing.)


-- 
Laura   (mailto:address@hidden, twitter: @serpentplayer)
(617) 661-8097  233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139   
http://www.laymusic.org/ http://www.serpentpublications.org

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centuries, and somehow fizzled away with, let’s say, the exploration
of the North and South Poles, which was only a media ego trip,
unhealthy and unwise, on the part of some individuals. The Polar
explorations were a huge mistake of the human race, an indication that
the twentieth century was a mistake in its entirety. They are one of
the indicators.

Werner Herzog, interview in the Paris Review, May 2, 2011