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Re: "\times" vs "\tuplet" (Was: Constructive Criticism and a Question)


From: Mats Bengtsson
Subject: Re: "\times" vs "\tuplet" (Was: Constructive Criticism and a Question)
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 22:53:20 +0100
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20061113 Debian/1.7.8-1sarge8

Valentin Villenave wrote:

Hi everybody,

I'm not trying here to "feed the troll", but however I'd like to try
to add my two cents in this discussion.
Just a brief foreword: tuplets are very, _very_ useful to many
contemporary composers nowadays, as far as it gives them the ability
to write complex rhythms and patterns without having to use weird time
signatures. In a word, tuplet-based music is way more musician- and
reader-friendy, without getting too simple. (I think about Ligeti, for
instance.)
The point is, as a composer, I use throughout the music I write, many
tuplet-based patterns, in almost every bar.
Typing, each time, "\times 3/2" and so on, is not very pleasant (well,
it doesn't kill me, but typesetting everything else is so fast that I
find this precise sequence very slowing down).
I totally agree with the proposition that was made to use \tuplet
instead of \times, but I'd like to propose something more audacious
and more ambitious:

How about:

"Tuplets are made with the minimalistic \t keyword".

"If you do not specify a tuplet argument, the argument last entered is
used for the next tuplet. The argument of the first tuplet in input
defaults to 2/3."

Example:

\t 2/3 { f8 g a }
\t { c r c }

This way, entering tuplets gets as simple as entering pitches and
basic durations.
(I like this idea, but since it has come to me last night at 4 a.m.,
maybe it isn't _that_ good...)

Comments:

- This is very easy to do in your text editor. Before you process
 the file, just run a Search/Replace of \t by \times (or possibly
 \tuplet in future versions). Many editors allow you to define
 macros, to further simplify this step.

- Another possibility is to use a preprocessor. If you search the
 mailing list archives you will find several discussions related
 to preprocessors.

- If Erik's proposal to handle fractions such as 2/3 as a new
 argument type is implemented, then it will be trivial to
 define your own music function called \t within LilyPond.
 I definitely do not think that it's a good idea to use such
 heavily abbreviated command names by default in LilyPond
 but on the other hand it's an excellent solution for you and
 many others to add such a customized music function and
 this specific example should be included as a standard example
 in the documentation.

  /Mats




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