Re: variables for numbers

[Flaming Hakama by Elaine]

On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 3:01 PM, Thomas Morley <address@hidden> wrote:

2018-05-10 22:51 GMT+02:00 Flaming Hakama by Elaine <address@hidden>:
>
> On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 11:03 AM, <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>> Send lilypond-user mailing list submissions to
>>         address@hidden
>
>
>
> I'm having difficulty understanding how to use a variable that stores a
> number, for use with a \raise command.
>
>
> I have numerous markup definitions similar to this one:
>
> sottoVoce = <>^\markup \raise #1.3 { \italic "sotto voce" }
> mezzoVoce = <>^\markup \raise #1.3 { \italic "mezzo voce" }
> { \sottoVoce a'1 \mezzoVoce c''1 }
>
> And I'd like to use a variable for the raise value, instead of repeating
> #1.3 for each definnition.
>
>
>
> Here are three MWE's of failed approaches.
>
> %  The common sense approach
> raiseDistance = #1.3
> sottoVoce = <>^\markup \raise \raiseDistance { \italic "sotto voce" }
> { \sottoVoce a'1 }
>
>
> %  Based on the line-width example on
> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/learning/organizing-pieces-with-variables
> %{
> myWidth = 60      % a number to pass to a \paper variable (the unit is
> millimeter)
> Depending on its contents, the variable can be used in different places. The
> following example \paper {
>        line-width = \myWidth
> }
> {
>         c1
> }
> %}
> raiseDistance = 1.3
> sottoVoce = <>^\markup \raise \raiseDistance { \italic "sotto voce" }
> { \sottoVoce a'1 }
>
>
>
> % Based on
> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/extending/lilypond-variables
> %{
>     twelve = 12
>     twentyFour = #(* 2 twelve)
> %}
> raiseDistance = 1.3
> sottoVoce = <>^\markup \raise #(raiseDistance) { \italic "sotto voce" }
> { \sottoVoce a'1 }
>
>
>
> Does anyone have either a suggestion for how to do this, or the appropriate
> place to RTFM?
>
> The examples on
> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/notation/substitution-function-examples
> all are of functions that consume a value.  There are no examples of using a
> variable that is a number.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> David Elaine Alt

Markup expects the scheme-representation of arguments, i.e. prepend
the variable with #
A single static variable shouldn't be enclosed into ()
Otherwise the first element would be seen as the operator doing
something with the other elements.

raiseDistance = #1.3
\markup \raise #raiseDistance { \italic "sotto voce" }

Cheers,
  Harm

Thanks, this works well.  I was even able to add a bit of scheme to use a default value if the variable has not been defined yet.

defaultRaiseDistance = #1.3

#(if (not (defined? 'raiseDistance))
    (define raiseDistance defaultRaiseDistance)
)

I'm curious though, where in the docs would we expect someone to learn how to do this?

I'd be willing to update the documentation, but I'm not sure what page(s) we intend for this to be explained.

Thanks,

David Elaine Alt

415 . 341 .4954                                           "Confusion is highly underrated"

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skype: flaming_hakama
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