RE: Middle line stem direction in 2.8

[Father Panteleimon]

Thank you, Werner, for the informative reply regarding stem direction &
slurs. The "levitating slur" is the only phenomenon that ever makes me think
that LP's output looks unfinished or awkward, although I may be ill-informed
and prejudiced on this matter, since the wysiwyg output I'm accustomed to
always has the slurs begin and end very close to noteheads or stems. If
slurs were always hand drawn, and can't see (intuitively) why anyone would
have them so far from the note as they appear in my previous example.
Perhaps the old-engraving methods of dealing with this problem can be
studied and incorporated into LP at some future point.
But even if they aren't it will still look better than anything else. [8^)> 

Fr. P

-----Original Message-----
From: Werner LEMBERG [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 12:55 AM
To: address@hidden
Cc: address@hidden; address@hidden
Subject: Re: Middle line stem direction in 2.8


> I imagine that old-school engravers had a very limited number of slur 
> shapes to work with,

No.  Slurs were always drawn by hand.

> so this case would make the levitating slur the only option, unless 
> the note-stem is inverted, in which case the slur looks very natural.  
> So what did the old-timers do here, and did they do it from 
> aesthetics, necessity, or convention?

If necessary, they have shortened the stem length, I think, or they have
inverted the stem direction.  Both is possible in lilypond, but the
automatic default for stems without beams on the middle line
*must* be down.


    Werner