RE: Shape Notes

[Jim Duke]

Jim Duke writes:
> address@hidden writes:
> > > me how to get that.  It has been very hard for me to figure out what 
> > > properties are available for what objects.  Being a guile/scheme 
> > > novice, I'm not sure of what I'm seeing in the code yet - but this 
> > > is what I surmise:
> > > 
> > > Any code can add any property to any object.  What structure is 
> > > there seems to be by convention.  Is that true?
> > 
> > Yep.
> > 
> > > If so, then how do I determine what that convention is?  How do I 
> > > determine what an appropriate modification to that convention should 
> > > be?
> > 
> > I don't really see why the notehead itself needs to know the key 
> > signature - the pitch object has the full pitch information (including 
> > chromatic alterations). If anything, IMO, there should rather be a
> 
> Oh wait, now I remember; the shapes denote relative positions within the
> scale. You are probably looking for the tonic property, so there should
> be a Shape_note_engraver, that uses the tonic context-property to
determine
> the shape grob-property of noteheads.
>
> Probably the easiest approach is to leave the existing Note_head_engraver
> in place, and make a Shape_note_engraver, that acknowledges Note head
> objects, and sets their shape grob-property.

Ok.  That sounds logical.  It doesn't sound too hard.  A few questions
(these may be rather obvious - but it isn't to me - so please bear with me):

"tonic" is a Pitch object that defines the tonic of the current key?  If so,
that's perfect.

I can't seem to find the "shape" property anywhere.  Are you proposing that
I add that property to Note-head grobs?  Would that be some kind of string -
which could be used by the Note-Head class when building the glyph name?

If that is what you are proposing, I think I would want to rename the solfa
font names to be more conducive to the way in which Note-Head builds glyph
names.  Basically, arrange the name to be like other note names.  For
example:

"solfa-0do" would be renamed "notehead-0do" or something similar
("notehead-0-solfa-do")

Then if the shape property exists - use it; otherwise use the
"glyph-name-procedure" method.

Another problem I have is with "fa".  A different shape is chosen for notes
with stems based on the direction of the stem.  Would the engraver have that
information available to it?

Thanks for the quick and helpful response.

-Jim Duke