The exact semantics of the new \new command?

[Mats Bengtsson]

Hi,

What, exactly, is the semantics of the \new <context> = <name> ...
syntax? As far as I understood the discussion leading to this
syntax, it should be equivalent to
\context <context> = <name>
if that context wasn't already created and it should
issue a warning if the context already existed.

As the following example shows (and the last example in
"More Stanzas", for example), what really happens is equivalent
to \new <context>, i.e. you get a new instance of the context
with some anonymous name. Also, no warning is issued.

\version "2.8.0"

\relative <<
 \new Staff = FIRST \new Voice { c1^"in FIRST" }
  % Should at least issue a warning:
 \new Staff = FIRST \new Voice { e1 e^"2nd incarnation of FIRST" }
 % Which of the above two will this one end up in?:
 \context Staff = FIRST \new Voice { g1 g g^"back in FIRST" }
>>

It seems that whoever updated the examples such as the
last example in "More Stanzas" rather had the impression
that
\new <context> = <name> ...
will always be equivalent to
\context <context> = <name> ...
which clearly isn't the case, so this is a problem both
in the implementation and the documentation and example
files.

  /Mats


--
=============================================
        Mats Bengtsson
        Signal Processing
        Signals, Sensors and Systems
        Royal Institute of Technology
        SE-100 44  STOCKHOLM
        Sweden
        Phone: (+46) 8 790 8463                         
       Fax:   (+46) 8 790 7260
        Email: address@hidden
        WWW: http://www.s3.kth.se/~mabe
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