Re: Understanding symbol-list? variable names

[David Kastrup]

Urs Liska <address@hidden> writes:

> Am 08.06.2018 um 12:43 schrieb David Kastrup:
>
>> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/changes/index.html
>>
>>
>>
>>      Association list elements could previously be assigned values
>>      individually (for example, paper variables like
>>      system-system-spacing.basic-distance). They may now be also
>>      referenced in this manner, as with
>>
>>          \paper {
>>            \void \displayScheme \system-system-spacing.basic-distance
>>          }
>>
>>      In combination with the previously mentioned changes, this allows
>>      setting and referencing pseudovariables like violin.1.
>
> Is that also documented *in* the references (as opposed to only in the
> changes)?

I don't think so, but neither is assignment to association list members
I think.  They were some special case once written as

variable #'field #'field = #value

and syntax

variable.field.field = #value

was introduced way before that kind of syntax was used for context
subproperties and was only useful for setting rather than retrieving.

So this is heavily un(der)documented and it doesn't help that it's not
quite clear how much more can sensibly actually be achieved here.  As
you noticed, the currently supported set is not overly consistent.

-- 
David Kastrup