Re: Why no numbers allowed in variables?

[David Kastrup]

Thomas Morley <address@hidden> writes:

> Am Di., 2. Okt. 2018 um 23:17 Uhr schrieb David Kastrup <address@hidden>:
>
>> So what is wrong with using \"var2" or \var.2 ?
>
> As a side note.
>
> I wasn't aware a comma works as well
> qwerty,2 = "bar"

That's likely a side effect of comma-separated lists having been made
identical to dot-separated ones in most respects so that you can write
stuff like

\keepWithTag violI,violII ...

where a dot looks awkward.  Feels like "don't go there" syntax, really.

> Although, while calling it, you _must_ use the dot
> \new Lyrics \lyricmode { \qwerty.2 }

That's sort of ugly, indeed.  Probably because , can be an octave
marker, so if the identifier is a pitch...  But of course a similar
reasoning would hold when the identifier is a duration followed by a
dot.

And admittedly, with the _current_ grammar, treating '.' and ',' equal
in that context does not trigger a warning.  However, here clearly the
"hierarchical" interpretation is given rather than the "list of equals"
and so I am queasy about fudging this option into the grammar when I
don't have a good feeling about what price may be to pay for it in
future and I don't see a real use case where that grammar would be the
preferred one.

-- 
David Kastrup