Re: LM 2.1.3 - bare durations

[Simon Albrecht]

Hello Federico,

I’m using this feature on a regular basis now, so I think I can explain 
what is meant. For example it is extremely useful for tied notes, since 
those have (almost) always the same pitch:
a2~ 1~ 2.
Here it works also if I omit the ties:
a2 1 2. , because the first note has an explicit duration.
Now the warning from the LM paragraph you quoted refers to the following 
case:
g2 a~ 1~ 2.
vs.
g2 a 1 2.
Without the ties (or any other intermittent information like in your 
example below), the parser will read only three notes here, ignoring the 
whitespace between a and 1, which will confuse the whole timing – a 
quite frequent error when one omits the pitch as regularly as has been 
usual with durations before.

As said before, I have adopted this method in spite of the mentioned 
error source, because I find the reduction of keystrokes valuable 
enough, even to the point of considering to forbid whitespace between 
pitch and duration (which would be another solution allowing the parser 
to disambiguate). But one might argue differently, of course. It’s a 
matter of coding style preferences, and perhaps standardization should 
not be taken too importantly.

I hope that explains the point. I find the LM wording clear enough.

A merry christmas to all of you,
Simon

Am 25.12.2014 11:10, schrieb Federico Bruni:
> LM 2.1.3
> I don't understand well the second sentence in this paragraph (in 
> master only at the moment):
>
> "This shorthand may be useful in other places where the rhythm changes
> with an unchanging pitch, but remember a bare duration will attach to
> the preceding pitch, making a single note, if only white space
> separates them."
>
> I can put more than white spaces between the pitch and the bare duration:
>
> \version "2.19.15"
> \relative c' {
> c8 4. 2 |
> c8-3 \mark \default 4. 2
> }
>
> Sorry for nitpicking, but I can't translate it if I don't understand 
> what it means.
>
> Thanks
> Federico