Re: Add option to indicate frets by letters in tablature (issue164063)

[Carl Sorensen]

On Dec 6, 2009, at 7:18 PM, "Ian Hulin" <address@hidden> wrote:

> Carl, Trevor,
>
> You've discussed the overloading of 'string' in Scheme and what  
> variable
> name to use, and looked at Dana's suggestion of using 'course' but did
> you consider the other important point Dana made?

I think so. That's why I suggested a list of (string or markup), which  
I think is completely general. At that point the user can select any  
glyph from any font available.

The possibility of adding the afm-type info that Dana talked about is  
a separate patch, because it applies to all markups.

Is there something else you were thinking of?

Thanks,

Carl

>
> address@hidden wrote:
>> <snip>
>>> Hhm, I'm not so sure about this.  I had envisaged changing
>>> only the c to r, leaving all letters beyond c to default.
>>
>> I don't understand this insistance on misreading gamma as r.   It  
>> was not
>> written as gamma, the letterform used was always understood as  
>> 'c'.  It
>> should be read today as c, and is most logically encoded as c.   
>> Yes, naive
>> musicologists and new players might take a while to get used to the  
>> idea,
>> but no experienced player reads gamma as 'r' to my knowledge.  Go  
>> this way
>> and you make a nightmare for possible analytical use of music thus
>> encoded.
>>
>> Let the choice of font display a glyph in the proper shape. Provide  
>> the
>> user with a way to display arbitrary glyphs and ligatures for each  
>> encoded
>> 'stop'.  This will be useful for bass stops (/a  /b  /c... //a  // 
>> b  //c,
>> ///a) and essential for german tab should we go there.
>>
>> It would be wrong to presume the encoding of the font.   The need for
>> glyphs beyond what is used in prose makes necessary special fonts  
>> whose
>> encoding has no standard.
>>
>> afm-like information in external files keyed by name to their  
>> relevant
>> font would be my suggestion for that.
>>
>>> Although if i not j is a general rule
>>
>> I have generally seen i used in preference to j, but I have seen  
>> both in
>> the same document albeit this was german tab (same semantic).  Note  
>> that
>> that edition had large pages and lots of staves, it must have been a
>> challenge to find enough sorts to set the amount of type on each  
>> page,
>> several sizes and flavors of each sort were also used interchangeably
>> (both tall and short s for example).
>>
>> J Wolf Handbuck der Notationskunde (2vv, ca 1926) and Apel  
>> _Notation of
>> Polyphonic Music 900-1600_ are the two standard references.  Groves
>> Dictionary of Music and Musicians (22vv or 26vv edition)  
>> 'Tabulature' is a
>> lengthy article also worth having a copy of.
>>
>> --
>> Dana Emery
>
> Cheers,
> Ian