Re: spacer rest *

[David Wright]

On Fri 27 Apr 2018 at 22:56:31 (+0200), Gianmaria Lari wrote:
> On 27 April 2018 at 15:44, David Wright <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > [...]
> > Well, I don't know how the decision was arrived at, but my own view is
> > that it's the correct one. The duration-only notation is aimed at
> > people writing rhythms, and they write them for instruments that play
> > notes (and pseudonotes like snare above). They don't compose rythmic
> > riffs for rests and spacers.
> >
> 
> Yes, I understand the advantage for people writing rhythms.
> 
> On 27 April 2018 at 15:45, Simon Albrecht <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > [...]
> >
> > Even if David K. says that could be changed, I find the current behaviour
> > pretty clear and sensible from my experience.
> >
> 
> Yes, the behavior is definitely very clear. And when you know it, it also
> easy!
> 
> The disadvantage is that introduce one exception and the exception has to
> be specified in the manual. But when you start learning something new, you
> concentrate on essentials things not on details/exceptions. Don't know if
> other people work the same but this is how does it works for me.

AFAICT the important exception that was introduced with naked
durations was that c 4 notates a single note whereas c4 4 notates two.
BTW although this point is explained in LM (page 23), I don't think it
has made it into NR yet.

Thank goodness that my own canonical style is c4 d8 e16 etc and not
c 4 d 8 e 16 which makes erroneous naked durations harder to spot in
the source. As a singer, naked pitches like c4 d e are the norm
(ie melody), whereas naked durations c4 2. 8 are of more limited usefulness.

> I'm not saying exceptions should be banned but introducing an exception
> make things a bit "more difficult" and this have to be considered. I'm
> speaking for me and in general terms. I have no idea if, in this specific
> case, the advantages of this behaviour are greater than the disadvantages.

In your own OP, I couldn't quite understand why you would prefer s8 8 8 8
over s8 s s s or s4. s8 unless you were machine-generating a variable
constructed with spacers from a variable containing music.

Cheers,
David.