Re: Letters as Left hand fingering

[David Kastrup]

Nick Payne <address@hidden> writes:

> On 16/05/12 17:43, David Kastrup wrote:
>> Nick Payne<address@hidden>  writes:
>>
>>> 2012/5/15 Pierre Perol-Schneider<address@hidden>:
>>>> Hi Group,
>>>>
>>>> Sometimes I need to put a letter in front of a number as a fingering.
>>>> Is there any possibility to declare "m" (for ex;) as a number so that I
>>>> could code<a-m1>   as a fingering ?
>>> Do you mean for right hand (stroke) fingering? The following enables
>>> you to use -\A etc for strokefingering. The additional
>>> my-stroke-finger function isn't needed for this but gives better
>>> alignment of the characters when you have a succession of them:
>>>
>>> \version "2.15.32"
>>>
>>> % shortcuts for stroke finger indications
>>> % can't use a or p, so use upper case for all
>>> P = #(define-music-function (parser location) ()
>>>      (apply make-music
>>>          (append
>>>              (list
>>>                  'StrokeFingerEvent
>>>                  'origin location)
>>>              (list 'digit 1))))
>> What about
>>
>> P=-\rightHandFinger 1
>>
>> Seems a bit simpler.
>
> Sure is. Probably better to use P=\rightHandFinger #1, and can then
> use - or ^ or _ as needed.

You can still use - or ^ or _ as needed.  - is neutral, meaning that it
does not change the direction flag either way, it merely tells the
parser that the whole thing is to be seen as postevent.

It used to be that this was necessary in order not to have the whole
construct wrapped inside of an EventChord, basically getting
<>-\rightHandFinger 1

Now with something like 2.15.28, it would not have gotten wrapped in an
EventChord anyway, the interpretation only depending on whether the
MusicEvent has the type post-event.  And with something rather recently,
it _did_ get this type.  So indeed, the - does not appear to serve a
useful purpose any more.  I forgot.

This means that
<URL:http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.15/Documentation/extending/inline-scheme-code>,
which was a strained example before the EventChord changes (and this is
mentioned at its top) now is completely lunatic.  It states (after the
initial disclaimer that just using F = -\tweak ... is all that is needed
to make this work):

    The main disadvantage of \tweak is its syntactical
    inflexibility. For example, the following produces a syntax error.

        F = \tweak #'font-size #-3 -\flageolet

        \relative c'' {
          c4^\F c4_\F
        }

    Using Scheme, this problem can be avoided.

Unfortunately, as a result of the EventChord changes, not even this code
produces a syntax error, but just works as intended, whether or not you
choose to add - before \tweak.

I apologize for the convenience.

But you might still want to keep this detail in mind for answering
\version "2.14.2" challenges.

-- 
David Kastrup