Re: documentation, collisions, and context help

[George Orwell]

Ah.  Got it.

Yes, I read through the tutorial, but did not "work through" it- I read it 
and afterwards used it for reference rather than trying to create my own 
versions of each example concept.

The whole system becomes much clearer if thought of as a programming system 
rather than a music-entry system.  I can anticipate what I need to do now to 
get particular music features to appear, because I understand what context 
is and basically how the internal algorithms "think".  But if approached 
from a "do what I expect" usability perspective, one has to do some work 
before really getting a handle on the system.

I would like to put a plug in for "stupid mode" (sorry, a better word fails 
me now) that tries to work around things like the start-with-chord feature 
and/or warns a user if they're about to run into that sort of problem.  The 
chord feature for example is very consistent with the internal algorithm but 
not with apparent behavior, and so wastes your time a lot : ).
Has anything like that ever been thought about?  Should I put any work into 
it?

Thanks again,
Hans


> From: Han-Wen Nienhuys <address@hidden>
> To: "George Orwell" <address@hidden>
> CC: address@hidden
> Subject: documentation, collisions, and context help
> Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 12:21:42 +0200
>
> address@hidden writes:
> > 
> http://www.lilypond.org/stable/Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond/Context-properties.html
> > seems to imply that "Properties that are set in one context are 
> inherited by
> > all of the contained contexts."
> >
> > But I have not found this to be true.  For example,
> > \property Voice.NoteColumn \override #'force-hshift = #1.0
> > <b, c d4 > < e f g > < c d e >
> > does what I want it to (collision detection on the seconds)
> >
> > but
> > \property Staff.NoteColumn \override #'force-hshift = #1.0
> > <b, c d4 > < e f g > < c d e >
> > does not.
> >
> > Could someone clarify what that documentation means?
>
> You're bumping into something else. Perhaps the manual should state
> more clearly, in flashing neon:
>
>      USE EXPLICIT \context IF YOU START A PIECE WITH A CHORD!
>
> In the former case, the \property Voice make sure that the < > goes
> into a voice. In the latter, you get three stems and 3 note heads, in
> overprint. The force-hshift value hasn't got anything to do with it.
>
> > Finally, I am now comfortable with the layout of the site and the
> > terminology involved, but it was VERY time consuming (lots of 
> unnecessary
> > websearching, because I didn't know where to look within the site) to 
> learn
> > to use the non-note-entry parts of lilypond.  Clearer pointers to (for
> > example) \property syntax, why exactly you should care what a Grob is, 
> and
> > more examples of "weird" examples (rather than just "larger" as are 
> found on
> > the complex examples page) would be wonderful.
>
> ok. thanks for the tips -- we'll look into it. One question though:
> did you work through the tutorial from start to end, or did you simply
> dive in?
>
> --
>
> Han-Wen Nienhuys   |   address@hidden    | http://www.cs.uu.nl/~hanwen/

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