Re: Layout behaviour arising from '\set chordChanges = ##t'

[Jim Long]

Thank you for your reply, Eluze.

On Tue, Jan 08, 2013 at 03:59:22PM -0800, Eluze wrote:
> 
> I don't think that your workaround is really helpful when a break occurs -
> using q would automatically produce a chord name to appear at line breaks
> but s doesn't do that.

I agree.  My workaround is a kludge, and intended only as an
aesthetic fix for the layout; it has several shortcomings.  Very
recently I ran into exactly the problem you mention.

> please tell us if you have more precise ideas about the wanted behavior - I
> will then try to add a enhancement request or a bug report to the tracker!

I looked into the installed files of my lilypond installation 
for occurrences of 'chordChanges' hoping that it was implemented
in scheme somewhere (and therefore possibly field-alterable), but
it does not appear to be so, at least to a layman's inspection.

Based just on conjecture, and described here with imperfect
terminology, it appears that currently, when the chord markup is
suppresed (due to two identical consecutive chords), the
ChordName(?) engraver stencils a transparent chordname markup;
nothing is printed, but space is still reserved for the
transparent stencil.

IMO, the preferred solution would be to have the ChordName
engraver remove the chordname stencil altogether, whenever the
chord markup is to be suppressed.

I'm attaching a similar example which shows:

- oops, the first line running off the paper somehow;

- bars 1-2 with no attempt to suppress repeated chordnames;

- bars 3-4 with repeated chordnames suppressed with
\set chordChanges = ##t

- bars 5-6 have \set chordChanges = ##f, but duplicate the
spacing of bars 3-4 by using a transparent ChordName stencil;

- bars 7-8 show a mock-up of my suggested improvement, where the
ChordName stencil is removed.

Thanks again for making time to take a look at this issue.
Let me know if I can provide some improved examples.

Jim

chordChanges.ly
Description: Text Data

chordChanges.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document