Re: Problem with \partial

[Erik Sandberg]

On 7/9/06, Graham Percival <address@hidden> wrote:
> Erik Sandberg wrote:
> > On Friday 07 July 2006 16:34, Graham Percival wrote:
>
> I'm convinced as far as proper notation goes.  But I'd still like to
> have a "add time" command to avoid some bugs.  I agree that it's a bad
> reason, but unless there's a better way to do it, some notation won't work.
>
> In an ideal world we wouldn't need workarounds like this, but it's
> useful to have a "fudge factor" \partial.  Perhaps we could rename it,
> and hide it somewhere in the manual under "advanced tweaks"?  :)

There is already a property that can be set (Timing.measurePosition
IIRC) which is what \partial modifies. \partial 8 sets the
measurePosition to -1/8, which is why it only works where a new bar is
expected to start.

It would be possible to write a new command that just adds a moment to
measurePosition, but that would be problematic too:
<<
{ c1 | \insertTime 8 s8 d1 | }
{ e1 | \insertTime 8 s8 f1 | }
> >
If both the insertTime commands subtract 1/8 from measurePosition,
then 1/4 would be subtracted in total, which we don't want.

This can maybe be fixed by letting Timing_engraver do the job, but
that might be a too big change, given that it's a workaround. This is
why I like the
\makeBar { s8 f1 }
variant: It's very easy to implement, and I don't think it will cause
any problems.

> Here's the example (and the only time I use \partial inside a piece)

If \partial was renamed to \upBeat, then at least users of \partial
mid-piece would be more aware that they used an improper solution to a
problem. I'm not sure, but I think there are invisible objects for
horizontal spacing, whose widths you can tweak. I think something like
that is the proper solution if you want to add a few extra mm of
spacing.

Erik