Re: TimeSignature with note in denominator

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi Lukas,

> It's probable that I'm missing a point (since I only skimmed the discussion 
> so far), but:
> 
> Currently, \time is defined (in ly/music-functions-init.ly) with the signature
> 
> #(define-music-function (beat-structure fraction)
>    ((number-list? '()) fraction?)
> 
> Now the predicate fraction? is defined (in scm/c++.scm) as
> 
> (define-public (fraction? x)
>   (and (pair? x)
>        (index? (car x)) (index? (cdr x))))
> 
> to wit, a pair of non-negative exact integers.
> 
> Now the lexer turns 3/4 into such a pair: See lily/lexer.ll, by virtue of the 
> lines
> 
> N        [0-9]
> FRACTION    {N}+\/{N}+
> 
> which translate as "a fraction consists of one or more digits, followed by /, 
> followed by one or more digits"; and the call to the procedure scan_fraction; 
> just search for it in lexer.ll. (I'm deliberately giving you more information 
> than you probably need, to help you navigate the source and see how 
> everything fits together.)

Thank you for that — it’s very helpful!

> It's no problem at all to make \time accept more general pairs: Just replace 
> fraction? by (e.g.) pair? in the definition of \time, or define a suitable 
> predicate of your own accepting only the "right" kind of pairs.

I did that (see earlier posts):

time =
#(define-music-function (beat-structure fraction)
  ((number-list? '()) pair?)
  (_i "Set @var{fraction} as time signature, with optional
number list @var{beat-structure} before it.")
 (make-music 'TimeSignatureMusic
             'numerator (car fraction)
             'denominator (cdr fraction)
             'beat-structure beat-structure))

This worked exactly as I hoped. The problem I ran into at that point was 
figuring out how to turn a string "4." into a note duration, in order to output 
it as the denominator of the time signature — and then the thread apparently 
went off the rails…

> of your three examples, only the first one (\time 3/4.) definitely would 
> require changes to the lexer/parser.

Changes that David K appears not to favour.

> I think it would be desirable to be able to enter durations in LilyPond 
> syntax, in order to, for example, be able to enter complicated constructs 
> like "8.~8" from Werner's example.

Agreed.

> But if you want to include LilyPond syntax in an explicit pair argument, you 
> need #{ #} which certainly works but makes for horrible syntax

Also agreed.  =)

> Wouldn't it be easier to define an independent \kierenTime function that 
> expects an integer (index?) numerator and a music (ly:music?) denominator?

See my “stylesheet” comment earlier in the thread: in a perfect world, a user 
should be able to take any existing score and simply add

   \override Score.TimeSignature.style = #'note-denom

and the output would be “as expected” — with a new function, a 
search-and-replace (with possible “fancy” manipulation of the arguments) is 
required every time the user wants to switch between styles. I personally 
consider that inelegant, or at the very least suboptimal, especially when 
Lilypond offers such a generous “global” context modification mechanism.

All that being said: The tide of resistance to finding the optimal 
implementation is evident, so I think I’ll just give up and add a new function 
in order to move the patch/feature forward.

Thanks,
Kieren.
________________________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer (he/him/his)
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: kieren@kierenmacmillan.info