Re: "Parallel music view" - inspiration for LilyPond editors.

[Nils Gey]

On Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:53:23 +0200
Janek Warchoł <address@hidden> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> one of the things that i find inconvenient in reading Lily syntax is
> its sequential nature.  For example,
> 
> <<
>   {
>     a4 b c d
>     e f g a
>     e a g f
>   }
>   {
>      e4 a g f
>      c2 e
>      d8 c f4 d2
>   }
> >>
> 
> it's hard to read the harmonies from the code, because voices are separate.
> I know about \parallelMusic, but it has weaknesses:
> - music cannot be easily copied and pasted (unless you copy whole measures)
> - it requires effort to maintain the alignment,
> - it is not feasible to write longer fragments this way (e.g. whole piece)
> - when there is a lot of overrides, articulations etc, it becomes
> not-so-effective in my opinion.
> 
> What about editors like Frescobaldi having the ability to convert
> "regular lilypond" to "horizontal scroll" and back?  E.g. the code
> above would be displayed as (view using monospace font):
> 
> <<
>   { a4 b  c  d  e  f  g  a  e    a   g  f  }
> 
>   { e4 a  g  f  c2    e     d8 c f4  d2    }
> >>
> 
> I think it would be absolutely awesome.  And i'm willing to pay $50
> for implementing thist in Frescobaldi!
> 
> What do you think?  Will you add some amount to the bounty, so that it
> will be easier for Wilbert to find time to add this? ;)
> Janek

Interesting, let me see..

I have to see if Frescobaldi has an internal representation of durations and 
time signatures/bar length, but I guess not. This way the conversion from 
parallel back to sequential is a bit tricky since you need to keep track of the 
current time signature.
I try to do it as as a standalone Python function so Fresobaldi and other 
editors can use it. No promises..

Nils 
http://www.laborejo.org