Re: "Instrument" as first class citizen

[Gilles]

On Thu, 23 Apr 2015 09:50:05 +0200, Xavier Scheuer wrote:
> On 23 April 2015 at 04:28, Gilles <address@hidden> 
> wrote:
> > On Wed, 22 Apr 2015 19:17:53 -0700, Flaming Hakama by Elaine wrote:
> > > [...]
> > > Without getting too technical, objects are things that you can 
> > > create,
> have
> > > properties and relationships with other well-defined objects.
> > >
> > > This is true for things like staves, staff groups, scores, books, 
> > > etc.
> > > You can say:  \new Staff = { ... } to create a new staff because 
> > > there is
> > > an object class called Staff that is well-defined.
> > > It has known properties like Staff.TimeSignature, 
> > > Staff.extraNatural,
> etc.
> > > Other objects (Staff Groups, Books, etc.) know how to handle this 
> > > Staff
> > > object, or several Staff objects.
> > >
> > > However, in the case of "instrument", there is no such object so 
> > > you
> cannot
> > > create one.
> > > There are certainly properties of other objects (namely, staves) 
> > > that
> have
> > > "instrument" in the name, like Staff.instrumentName,
> > > Staff.shortInstrumentName, Staff,midiInstrument.
> > > However, these are *properties of a Staff object*.
> > > There is no way to create an "instrument" outside the context of a 
> > > staff,
> > > or identify or change its properties.
> > > You cannot add an instrument to a staff or any other object.
> > >
> > > If there were, the syntax might be more like:
> > >
> > > violin = \new Instrument {
> > >     Instrument.name = 'violin'
> > >     Instrument.shortName = 'v.'
> > >     Instrument.midi = 'violin'
> > >     Instrument.clef = treble
> > >     ...
> > > }
> > >
> > > \new Staff {
> > >     Staff.Instrument = \violin
> > >     \violinMusic
> > > }
> >
> >
> > From the viewpoint of the encoder, this is quite sensible.
> > This would be a nice syntax simplification.
>
> Actually there is the \addInstrumentDefinition command (used in
> combination with \instrumentSwitch) which does *part* of that.

IMHO, a list of all instrument definitions would be useful.
Perhaps in individual files for inclusion ("violin.instrument.ily")
and files of families ("strings.family.instrument.ily"), and files of
musical ensembles ("quartet.ensemble.instrument.ily")...
[With accompanying "LilyPond" (not scheme) syntax for overriding
the default settings or selecting variants (e.g. something like
"\bassoon \with { \clef tenor }".]

Regards,
Gilles

> See NR 1.6.3 Writing parts > Instrument names
>
> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/notation/writing-parts#instrument-names
>
> Cheers,
> Xavier