\newEngraverSection (was "Re: Aleatoric Elements with barlines")

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi all,

> If it turns out to be unacceptable to move the engravers for the majority of 
> your project, you could consider engraving this cadenza section as its own 
> score which allows it to have an independent layout block.  This alternate 
> strategy means subdividing your one score into multiple scores, so you would 
> need to adjust things like measure numbering, indentation, and other spacing 
> variables to get the final output to appear seamless.

This "must include/remove all engravers once and for all at the beginning of 
the score" has always seemed to me to be an unfortunate fundamental reality in 
Lilypond. With certain grobs (e.g., BarNumber), it’s easy enough to use \hide 
or \omit (and revert) to vary the engraver’s apparent *output*… but with other 
elements (e.g., Timing stuff, SystemStart stuff, etc.), it’s impossible (as far 
as I know) to do anything except what you’re suggesting above.

Would it be technically possible to add a \newEngraverSection — analogous to 
\newSpacingSection — which would allow a single contiguous score to have 
different engravers "active" in different sections?

This isn’t even yet at the level of "feature request": right now, I’m just 
curious to hear an answer like "can’t happen without a total re-write of the 
entire C++ codebase" or "technically possible, but the interface isn’t clear" 
or "even though it’s dead simple to achieve, here’s why that’s the stupidest 
idea we’ve ever heard".

Thanks,
Kieren.
________________________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: address@hidden