Re: Changing voice order...

[David Kastrup]

"Mark Stephen Mrotek" <address@hidden> writes:

> David,
>
> If " Generally users don't know the proper order of voice arranging
> commands" would that not be the fault of those who do not read the
> manual?

Well, I write the manual more than I read it.  Nevertheless I prefer it
if reading the manual is a reward more than a punishment.  LilyPond does
not have a graphic interface to woo its users; it talks to them using
its manuals.  So I prefer it if it does not have its entrails sticking
all over it while trying to be friendly.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zArEBFsviHs> (I apologize to those not
in command of the German language, but the graphical content speaks for
itself).

> Those who have created Lilypond have my sincere respect. Lilypond is
> totally beyond my ken (FORTRAN was my Master's requirement for a
> foreign language!).  As I mentioned, I can follow directions, and I
> assume that other uses can do likewise.

My father, like other German boys his age, was drafted in the final
stages of WWII.  He taught me and my siblings that directions should
make sense and that respect is not commanded but earned.  I am grateful
for the respect you express for those continuing to create LilyPond.  As
an early adopter you stand to having to relearn some things occasionally
and your feedback is important for figuring out how to keep this to a
minimum.

> I cannot conceive of the rationality of changing anything because some
> are too busy to read the manual.

Well, as a musician we often are in the situation of "this is how your
instrument works, suck it up".  And one has minor cheats loosening the
fundamental limitations of your instrument, like piano players using key
vibrato (a rather subtle effect which should not work at all) or
accordion players using various forms of vibrato (at least there the
means of propagation via bellows pressure is more obvious) or
half-pressed buttons or half-stopped registers.

The uncompromising anatomy of a violin is made more palatable using
shoulder and chin rests.

My own accordion spells rebellion against the musical limitations
dictated by a fixed chord octave: I have a slider allowing me to select
the chord octave among 20 different possibilities.

So even musicians question the status quo defined by their instruments.
LilyPond is easier to change than most instruments are, and in contrast
to physical instruments it has a lot of players and we try not just
accommodating the established masters of it.

I like Bach's solo violin pieces because in spite of their partly
tremendous challenges they don't contain gratuitous difficulty: they
aren't etudes: there is good musical reason and payoff for what they
demand from the player.  They are written for violin, not against it.
Fingering instructions are unnecessary in the harder passages because
there is just one obvious and physically and musically possible way to
play anyway.

And I like my software to make sense of its own without fingering
instructions as well.  Let the players save their energy for that which
is musically rewarding.  We have enough necessary complications that it
is worth trying to minimize the unnecessary ones.

Dan called some consequences I explicated "repulsive" but they were sort
of inherent in the current design and name choice.  I have to agree and
would like to get rid of that noodle if feasible without becoming too
disruptive.

-- 
David Kastrup