Re: Adds incipit section to NR (issue 108270043 address@hidden)

[David Kastrup]

"Phil Holmes" <address@hidden> writes:

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Kastrup" <address@hidden>
> To: "Phil Holmes" <address@hidden>
> Cc: <address@hidden>;
> <address@hidden>; <address@hidden>;
> <address@hidden>
> Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2014 1:26 PM
> Subject: Re: Adds incipit section to NR (issue 108270043
> address@hidden)
>
>> At any rate: why do you believe that an instrument should be formatted
>> differently before an incipit than before a regular score?
>
> I explained this in some detail in my email timed 11:20-ish BST.  It's
> because of the way \indent is used both for the incipit width and the
> indent.

It isn't really.

After using that "reference" for digging up the relevant quote, taking
only about a quarter of an hour, I arrive at

    I'll pick up on the right/left alignment issue first.  I believe I
    concluded right-aligned to be the correct answer because we are
    effectively reusing the \indent value to set the width of the
    incipit, including instrument name.  Now, if someone wishes to have
    the first line actually indented, this makes it impossible.  See the
    3rd image attached as an example.

    See?  The instrument name ("Altus") is stuck to the left margin and
    it's impossible to adjust its position.  Right align it, however,
    and the first line can be indented to the value desired (with a
    little experimentation). The fourth image shows this.  This is
    surely far better?


At the current state of the debate I have a hard time viewing this as
anything but a straw man.  The default, as I have written several times
already, is _not_ left alignment.  It is #CENTER.  Indeed, if you set
the instrument name alignment to the NON-standard #LEFT, the instrument
name, as long as \indent (or, in the case of the incipit,
\indent-\incipit-width) provides enough space, will not budge from the
left edge.  No question about that.  But that's not the issue at all.

Because InstrumentName.self-alignment-X declares where to place the
instrument name in the free space provided by \indent.  The default in
every score is to _center_ the instrument name in the available space.

Here is how that looks
<URL:http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/snippets/pitches#pitches-orchestra-choir-and-piano-template>.

Only when there is insufficient indent to place the instrument name is
it put right before the staff, _right_-aligned.

The default _never_ works out to be aligned at the left edge, yet you
continue to argue against the completely irrelevant case of
left-alignment when wanting to have the default overriden in the
presence of incipits.

I don't get it.  There is _nothing_ in the presence of incipits that
would make _any_ difference in regard to how the instrument name is
placed to the left of staff or incipit.

Unless incipit-width is too small to accommodate the incipit in the
first place, the amount of space available for the instrument name is
\indent-\incipit-width.  Even in that case, I don't see that the natural
or best placement of the instrument name in the remaining space would be
at the right of the remaining space.

-- 
David Kastrup