Re: thoughts on changing \magnifyMusic, please comment

[David Kastrup]

Mark Polesky <address@hidden> writes:

> Janek Warchoł wrote:
>> So, we can say that \magnifyStaff sets staff "size" to an
>> absolute value - defined as the fraction of the default
>> size - and not "relative" to the previous size.
>
> Not exactly.  A magnifyStaff value is only relative to the
> previous staff size the first time it's used in a given
> staff.  The value of "1" refers to the settings that are in
> effect when magnifyStaff is first called.  After that, then
> yes, I suppose it's "absolute".  But it's not precise to say
> that it scales the "default" values, since it scales the
> user's settings.

Sigh.  That's not as much a user interface as it is a nightmare.  It's
sort of hand-waving.

> But do you really think this is what users are going to
> want?  To me the extra reset command seems needlessly
> cumbersome, and the "relative" magnification seems so
> non-intuitive, I find it hard to believe that anyone needs a
> relative function here, so I just built the reset into the
> function itself.  And besides, isn't this already so
> esoteric (multiple mid-stream staff size changes?), what
> tiny minority are we catering to by even worrying about it?
>
> Sorry if I'm ranting; my questions are sincere, and I'm
> happy to take further discussion on the matter.  I think I'm
> leaning towards:
>   1) keeping magnifyStaff as it is
>   2) making magnifyMusic syntax like magnifyStaff
>   3) changing magnifyMusic to magnifyVoice

The takeout may be that several commands doing a clear-defined job may
be warranted.

Personally, I am most uncomfortable with the "be relative to current
settings once" idea: that seems like a total nightmare in situations
using quotes or similar.  The question is where we could access a
reasonably "default" setting that relative references could be based on.

-- 
David Kastrup