Re: [wish] Remove \skip duration in Lyrics

[Trevor Daniels]

Abraham Lee wrote Monday, April 27, 2015 5:39 PM

> I've seen lately a handful of users using (and suggesting to others) the
> single underscore "_" syntax to skip syllables in lyrics instead of "\skip
> X", which I think is a mistake when it's obvious they did not intend to
> make a melisma. It works, except the lyrics get left-aligned to the first
> note.

Yes.  I've actually not seen many recently, and the manuals advise against it,
for the reason you give.
  
> I am wondering if anyone has a better suggestion for a pure skipped
> syllable to replace "\skip X" since the duration "X" doesn't matter at all.
> It's easy enough to create a replacement macro like:

I usually suggest using " ", if just one or two syllables are involved.

> OR, it could use the number to say *how many syllables to skip* instead of
> a duration. I'm thinking about the instances where I've seen (and used)
> something like:
> 
> skipFour = \repeat unfold 4 { \skip 4 }

For longer durations I know of no alternative.  What you suggest seems
sensible in a Lyrics context, but it would break backwards compatibility.
And it has been suggested before: 
https://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=1330

Trevor


Trevor