Re: Issue 1278: Arrow notation for quarter-tones. (issue3789044)

[Han-Wen Nienhuys]

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 7:46 PM,  <address@hidden> wrote:

>> Why not use a sequence of Rationals [..] to represent the alteration?
>
> A single Rational can hold the series as a sum, and preserve the
> separability of the terms, if we use mutually prime denominators.
> In scales where cih is identical to ciseh, ciseh can be +1/2 - 1/4 =
> 1/4.
> In scales where cih is logically distinct from ciseh, ciseh can be +1/2
> - 1/5.

I know that, but

1. The separability will go out the window if people start transposing
by these amounts.
+1/1 - 1/5 = 3/10.   Transpose by that 5 times, and you have 15/10 =
3; the quarter tones have gone.

I realize this concern is mostly academic.

2. If what we really want to represent is a sequence of numbers (and I
gather it is), we should make the internal representation a sequence
too.  If we use rational numbers, we can maintain backward
compatibility.

-- 
Han-Wen Nienhuys - address@hidden - http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen