On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 7:47 AM, Thomas Morley
<address@hidden> wrote:
Surely you noticed that I'm not a native-english-speaker. This is one of the cases where I've got a problem. I can't translate blot-diameter and so I don't know what it is or how to use. (Of course I know how to translate "blot" and "diameter", but I'm in the dark with the meaning of "blot-diameter" of a polygon. There are some other files in .scm where it is used, but these doesn't enlights me too)
I wasn't familiar with this terminology either, but I've figured out that it is a measurement related to the rounded edges which makes LilyPond output resemble hand engraving. I've attached an image which shows beams with different blot-diameters (in blue) superimposed on beams with no rounding at all (black). The first value, 0.08, is the default blot-diameter at staff size 20. The other values are multiples of the default beam-thickness, 0.48. You can picture the rounding created by a circle with the given diameter.
This was created using a modification of the \beam command. In all cases, I used the same width and length for the beam, only varyng the 'blot-diameter.
I'm glad to help! (Hopefully I've not said something inaccurate here -- I'm learning as I go along!)
-David