Re: global-set-staff-size not equivalent to layout-set-staff-size?

[Patrick McCarty]

Hi,

On 2010-08-14, Patrick Karl wrote:
> The following snippet is engraved differently depending on whether
> the 
> 
>       #(set-global-staff-size 9) 
>            or
>       #(layout-set-staff-size 9)
> 
> is in effect.  The difference is that the "set-global-staff-size"
> command causes the piece to be engraved on a single page, while the
> "layout-set-staff size" command causes the piece to be engraved on
> two pages.  The reason appears to be that the layout-set-staff-size
> command doesn't appear to actually change the staff sizes.
> 
> It was my understanding from reading the Notation Manual that the
> only difference between these two commands was scope, the "global"
> version affecting the entire document while the "layout" version
> only affects the score it is contained in.
> 
> (This problem arose when I wanted to combine several "pieces" into a
> single file but retain the earlier pagination, which depended upon
> different values of the "set-global-staff-size" parameter value.  I
> have not yet been able to discover how to do the combination and
> retain the original pagination due to this difference in behavior.)
> 
> Can anyone clarify?  Thanks.

There are at least two issues with `layout-set-staff-size'.  One of
them is documented in Notation Reference 4.2.1:

  Known issues and warnings

  layout-set-staff-size does not change the distance between the
  staff lines. 

and the other is filed on the bug tracker:

  http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=1129

As far as I can see, from my initial investigations into the above
issue, `layout-set-staff-size' was never intended to be used for
individual scores: instead, it was intended to be a different way
to express `set-global-staff-size' at the global level.

In other words, these two statements (at the global scope) are
equivalent:

  #(set-global-staff-size 9)

  \paper {
    #(layout-set-staff-size 9)
  }

Any other usage of `set-global-staff-size' will issue a warning,
and any other usage of `layout-set-staff-size' will not work
correctly.

So, at this point, there is no *easy* way to scale the staff size
of an individual score, but hopefully this can be resolved after I
understand what is going on with issue 1129.

Thanks,
Patrick