Re: Lilypond syntax

[Graham Percival]

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 01:01:01PM -0500, Tim McNamara wrote:
> Some weeks back there was some discussion of the Lilypond
> syntax, I made some suggestions and was asked to write up a
> sample .ly file with the ideas I had in mind.  Basically my
> notion was to separate content (notes and chords) from form
> (number of bars, repeats, codas, rehearsal marks, etc.) in how
> things are coded into .ly files.  I've been playing around with
> that some and here is a sample .ly file with some of those
> ideas.  They may be terrible ideas, they may be impractical,
> they might require a total rewrite of Lilypond to implement,
> etc.  I think like a musician, not a programmer, after all.  To
> me the form is the container of the music and it makes sense to
> specify the form first and then place the music within it.
> Others may see this very differently.

I like the general idea, but I have a feeling that most of this is
already possible if you use a \global variable or \applyOutput or
\applyContext or something like that.  I know that you are not a
programmer, but you might find it worthwhile to look into the
scheme side of lilypond.  There are also some "frameworks" like
Reinhold's orchestrallily which do some of this:
http://wiki.kainhofer.com/lilypond/orchestrallily

Also, please don't send copyrighted material to the mailing list.
Your ideas could have been demonstrated with something like

form = {
  "verse 1" = 4 bars
  "chorus" = 4 bars
}
music = {
  c1 c c c
  d1 d d d
}

obviously in more detail to show everything you had, but still --
there was no need to involve copyrighted material.  Remember that
even if you think that this usage is acceptable by the laws of
your country, other countries have different laws.

- Graham