significance of whitespace [WAS: LilyPond, Finale and Sibelius]

[Jan Nieuwenhuizen]

Op zondag 05-04-2009 om 18:13 uur [tijdzone -0300], schreef Han-Wen
Nienhuys:

> as long as I have anything to do with LilyPond, I will veto changes
> like this that introduce inconsistent whitespace handling in the
> syntax.

What was the problem with this again?  It is not so much inconsistent
whitepace, it's the absence or presence of whitespace.  That's
quite a difference.  We have that already

   c 4 4 == c4 4  != c44  % first ws significance BAD, second GOOD?
    ^ ^

I'm quite certain there is a good argument for not not making such
changes--in fact I remember proposing this change about a decade
ago and you talking me out of it :-) --but I don't remember
the reason.  

It would be good for the archives too: a good reason
may even hold it back should the veto ever fail ;-)

Jan.

-- 
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <address@hidden> | GNU LilyPond - The music typesetter
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jantien       | http://www.lilypond.org