Re: timing (the 1.7 approach)

[Juergen Reuter]

On Fri, 24 May 2002, Rune Zedeler wrote:
> ...
> The mensural stuff would be solved by allowing this syntax because one
> could simply enter the "real" duration of a note and then let the
> engraver about to decide how to typeset it.

I.e., if I understand correctly, you are in favour of "back-transcribing"
to mensural notation rather than "forward-transcribing" from mensural to
contemporary music.  Mmh, I am not sure if that is what users actually
want, since for entering a mensural piece of music, you then would have to
transcribe it in mind, enter the transcribed version, and finally let lily
transcribe it back.  Still, I have to admit that my implementation of
mensural ligatures follows exactly this back-transcribing approach for the
sake of consistency with existing syntax in lilypond; that way, I was
able to implement mensural ligatures without any change in mudela.

So, I am a little bit shaky about the whole idea, although I also like
your idea of having syntax like "c12", since it looks mathematically clean
and elegant (though users might have a problem to get adopted to this way
of thinking).  By the way, the difference between e.g. c4*1/3 and c3*1/4
for c12 is exactly what time signatures were originally invented for;
they were *not* invented to specify were bar lines should go.  In other
words, c12 should suffice in the sense that it contextfreely specifies the
duration of the note; all of the rest such as the grouping in 3 or 4 notes
(similar as engraving beams) should (by default) be derived from the time
signature.

As for mensural music, I also intend to define macros maybe like (here for
a pure binary system [2:2:2:2]):

Mx = \duration #(make-duration -3 0)   % Maxima
L  = \duration #(make-duration -2 0)   % Longa
B  = \duration #(make-duration -1 0)   % Brevis
S  = \duration #(make-duration 0 0)    % Semibrevis
M  = \duration #(make-duration 1 0)    % Minima
Sm = \duration #(make-duration 2 0)    % Semiminima
F  = \duration #(make-duration 3 0)    % Fusa
Sf = \duration #(make-duration 4 0)    % Semifusa

(as in ly/declarations-init.ly).

Maybe, as a workaround, the user could define these settings depending on
the actual time signature (I have to think more deeply about this).

Greetings,
Juergen