Re: ugly default output

[Kevin Barry]

On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 1:39 AM, Steve Lacy <address@hidden> wrote:

I'll have to say that I find this perspective a bit short-sighted. (no pun intended)  

There's *lots* of "short" music that would benefit greatly from beautiful typesetting. 

"Short" music, per se, isn't the problem. The issue is that sometimes LilyPond has to decide between two evil choices and in this case the excerpt was a little too long for one system and too short for two. The ugly bar was caused by an extra note column in one of the four staves that made note columns in the other three parts seem too wide (bar 4 of Martin's example). It's a coincidence that requires an unusual combination that is no more likely (I would say) to occur in the typesetting of Irish melodies than in compositions with many staves. I have set a few Irish melodies in LilyPond and they all looked great. I hope you weren't saying it does a bad job!

Nobody was saying that there are classes of music that are typeset less well by design or intent, just that sometimes typesetting decisions are difficult (which is not LilyPond's or the music's fault), and that is the case whether we are writing out by hand or using a computer.