Re: Describing instruments

[Jonathan Wilkes]

> Message: 6
> Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:42:04 +0100
> From: Valentin Villenave <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: Describing instruments
> To: Graham Percival <address@hidden>
> Cc: David Kastrup <address@hidden>, address@hidden
> Message-ID:
>     <address@hidden>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> 
> On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 10:03 PM, Graham Percival
> <address@hidden>
> wrote:
> > I don't think that lilypond should serve as a crutch
> to composer
> > who know so little about their craft that they write
> unplayable
> > notes.
> 
> Besides, things are not so black-and-white for some
> instruments (e.g.
> wind instruments or singers can produce high notes that
> are
> out-of-range but still okay, and what about pedal notes wrt
> horns and
> trombones?).  That being said, it could be a nice
> enhancement for
> newcomers who are used to having such "features" in
> proprietary
> software.
> Even though I personally find such features infantilizing
> for the
> user, I consider this to be a valid feature request in case
> someone
> has time, skills and courage to implement it. Added as
> http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=914

Hi Valentine,
<snarky due to your use of the word "infantile">
     If warning the user about suspiciously placed pitches in 
the vertical dimension of the staff is infantile, is warning the user 
about suspiciously placed rhythms in the horizontal dimension of the staff 
an unacceptable engraving practice in Lilypond?  Does it build character 
to refrain from using barchecks?
<\snarky>
     For orchestral scores, I think such a range-checking feature is more 
important in Lilypond than it is in GUI programs.  In GUI programs, I'm
looking at each note in the virtual score as it's entered, whereas in 
Lilypond I'm entering long streams of notes without immediate visual 
feedback.  This is one of the reasons octave checks are important.  And 
if one happens to go astray between periodic octave checks-- especially 
if it happens twice in a row so that the register gets back on track-- 
range-checking would definitely be a helpful (though not foolproff) bonus.
     Also, I don't think newcomers would benefit as much as "power users." 
When I first learned Lilypond I was compiling after each measure, so I 
didn't even use octave checks.  But if I'm entering an entire orchestral 
part in one fell swoop, I'd like all the help I can get to track down 
my note-entry mistakes (especially when dealing with transposition levels).

-Jonathan