second developers' meeting in Koblenz

[Werner LEMBERG]

Here are the results from the second LilyPond developers' meeting in
Koblenz -- this is, Han-Wen and I spent one evening and morning
together having some nice talks. :-)

The following is a list of various things which should be added or
fixed in our opinion.

. Overprint boxes.  The idea is that in case some text is colliding
  with another grob (like a bar line), we add a possibility to `erase'
  a rectangle slightly larger than the text before the text is
  printed.

. Shape of ties and slurs: Sharpened endings.  Currently, the ratio
  between the thickness of the start and end of a slur compared to the
  thickness in the middle is too low.  The thickness at the start and
  end should be reduced.

. Flushright bar numbers: I've mentioned already in a previous mail
  that bar numbers should be moved to the right as it was in previous
  lilypond versions.

. Rotated hairpins.

. Separate control of extra-offset property for beginning and ending
  of spanners.

. Insertion of cue clefs.  This is necessary for cues which use a
  different clef than the instrument part.

. Bug: Whole bar rests sometimes don't get enough horizontal space.
  The reasons are unknown yet.  I think I've reported it already a
  longer time ago.

. `+' sign for time signatures, to have e.g.

      1   7
      - + -
      4   8

  This glyph is missing.

. Handling ties in chords.  This should be fixed after the next major
  release -- Han-Wen told me that he intends to completely rewrite the
  tie code.

. Ties into `nothing' (l.v. = laissez vibrer).  Again this is just a
  reminder that this feature is needed for many composers (e.g.,
  Debussy).

. Symbols for start and end of `Hauptstimme' and `Nebenstimme'.
  Needed for `Wiener Schule'.  They look approximately like this:
     _      _          _     _
    H  ..... |        N ..... |

. It might be useful to have commands like \useTeXbackend to make
  lilypond emit a warning if the wrong backend is used (cf. "\ " which
  actually prints a backslash followed by a space in PS output but an
  unbreakable space in TeX).

. Beam direction: Test the algorithm which I've mentioned in another
  mail (this is, use the biggest vertical offset of beamed notes to
  decide the direction).

. Bug: Make hairpins end just before barlines.

. Bug: Separate cue note sections must end spanners.

. Bug: Triplet brackets must not overlap.

. [This is my suggestion only]: Provide

    \Grob

  as a shorthand for

    \once \override Grob

  This would save a lot of typing.  Example:

    \DynamicText #'extra-offset = #'(0 . -1)

Note that the items tagged as `bug' are mainly reminders for Han-Wen,
so don't wonder if they appear as cryptic to you :-)


    Werner