Re: can InstrumentName padding centered according to the longest instrument name?

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi David,

First of all, many [public] thanks for having done this work: it’s remarkable, 
and extremely helpful to me.

q.v. On Wednesday night, I was out for a drink with a musician friend, who 
“admires” me because I use Lilypond instead of Finale or Sibelius. I used this 
exact feature/fix as an example of how amazing Lilypond — and the community — 
are! I asked him how often and quickly new features that he wants in Finale are 
added… he said nothing and had another [big] swig of his beer.  ;)

> One problem that Kieren noticed is evident in the last example   When the 
> padding is set to 0, all names are as far right as they can go and still be 
> properly aligned one to another.  When, however, the padding is changed, 
> inconsistencies are seen.  With padding = 1, we would expect "Sop./Bar." on 
> the second system to be the same distance from the system-edge as "Piano" is 
> from its bracket on the last system--that is the goal of this function.  Yet 
> there is inconsistency, and this inconsistency varies when padding is 
> adjusted.

The workaround — which is, in the end, ‘perfect’ to my eye — is:

  \override Score.InstrumentName.padding = #0
  \override Score.InstrumentName.extra-offset = #’(-N . 0)

where N is the amount of “padding” you actually want.

While ever-so-slightly “hacky”, I consider this to be light-years better (and 
less “hacky”) than the conventional workaround of adding a terminal space to 
instrumentName. And the positioning is truly reference-engraving (e.g., 
Barenreiter?) quality to my mind.

Thank you again!
Kieren.

________________________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: address@hidden