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Reorganizing the contents of the \paper block


From: Trevor Bača
Subject: Reorganizing the contents of the \paper block
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 09:21:50 -0600

Hi,

Hopefully this won't be rocking the boat too much, but I'd like to
open a small discussion about  reorganizing the contents of the \paper
block.

Section 11.1.2 "Page formatting" lists 27 \paper settings:

first-page-number
print-first-page-number
print-page-number
paper-width
paper-height
top-margin
bottom-margin
left-margin
line-width
head-separation
foot-separation
page-top-space
ragged-bottom
ragged-last-bottom
system-count
between-system-space
between-system-padding
horizontal-shift
after-title-space
before-title-space
between-title-space
printallheaders
systemSeparatorMarkup
blank-page-force
blank-last-page-force
page-spacing-weight
auto-first-page-number


Seems to me that in most programs, stuff like paper dimensions and
margins are included in a page setup dialog somewhere, but that stuff
having to do with headers and footers and titles and other types of
text usually lives somewhere else. So, when I look at these 27 \paper
settings, I see them organizing into something like the following
categories:


Two settings for the physical paper itself:

paper-width
paper-height


Four settings for margins (closely related to the physical paper):

top-margin
bottom-margin
left-margin
line-width (instead of right-margin)


Seven settings for headers and footers:

first-page-number
print-first-page-number
print-page-number
auto-first-page-number
head-separation
foot-separation
printallheaders


Three for titles (which are text and probably a type of one-time header):

after-title-space
before-title-space
between-title-space


Six for the (mostly vertical, but one horizontal) layout of systems:

ragged-bottom
ragged-last-bottom
system-count
between-system-space
between-system-padding
horizontal-shift


And three page-layout settings that probably influence decisions about
pageBreaks:

blank-page-force
blank-last-page-force
page-spacing-weight


These settings are all important and are certainly possible to lay out
score with sucessfully.

Maybe the settings would be easier to find and make more conceptual
sense like this?

Strip \paper down to settings pertaining to paper:

\paper {
  paper-width
  paper-height
  top-margin
  bottom-margin
  left-margin
  right-margin (new; line-width moves elsewhere?)
}


Move over the settings having to do with page layout into the \layout block:

\layout {
  ragged-bottom
  ragged-last-bottom
  system-count
  between-system-space
  between-system-padding
  horizontal-shift
  blank-page-force
  blank-last-page-force
  page-spacing-weight
}


And create a new block for headers and footers:

\headers-and-footers {
  first-page-number
  print-first-page-number
  print-page-number
  auto-first-page-number
  head-separation
  foot-separation
  print-all-headers (iso printallheaders)
  after-title-space
  before-title-space
  between-title-space
}


Does this add value? Or just create a huge mess?

I wouldn't ask except for the fact that I've now been laying out score
very successfully with lily for going on two years and I still have to
stop and ask myself "Hmm ... I'm wanting to pad systems on the page so
that they lay out more loosely. So that concerns layout and I'll look
for settings over here in the \layout block. Oh wait. Settings for
system layout live in the \paper block ..."


--
Trevor Bača
address@hidden

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