Re:Advice on naming and structuring scholarLY commands

[Flaming Hakama by Elaine]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Urs Liska <address@hidden>
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2018 09:28:05 +0200
Subject: Re: Advice on naming and structuring scholarLY command

Hi Elaine,

Am 15.06.2018 um 02:21 schrieb Flaming Hakama by Elaine:

Actually I think  \edmark and \edMarkup (or something along these lines) might be the best compromise between the generality of the command, expressiveness and practicality.

Urs

My $0.02 is that you should spell out \editorialMark.

\edMark is not expressive enough.

We're not in an 8.3 epoch, there is no cost to a few extra letters to say what you really mean. 

OK, good point.
But (also in light of your other post on this thread) it "mark" really what it is?
I think I'd really be fine with \editorialXXX, but while we're at it we should really pick the right term, isn't it?

From my (limited) understanding of English a mark is not what we're encoding here. A mark would be a single item that describes or that points to something.
What we have *is* a descriptive element, but it is not that our command inserts an "item that describes something" but our command itself describes something that is actually included in it. We encode some music, e.g. { s2 } and describe it as being a "gap" with the attribute of its reason being damage by ink spill, for example. Or we can say that in { c8 [ d e f ] } the Beam "is" an editor's addition.

Would it be correct to say that we "mark up" some music? From Merriam-Webster's definition this is totally alien (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/markup), but isn't this exactly the meaning of "markup language"?

If that's correct I think that \editorialMarkup would be fine.

What do you think?

Urs

Thanks for your interest in my opinion on this topic.

I understand your concern with using "Mark" as the basis of the name, since while this \editorialMark will often (or always?) include a mark that appears on the page, it also contains musical alternatives, so it is not merely a type of Mark.


It seems that, in order to use \editorialMark, you need to identify a segment of music, which is then addressed with annotations and alternatives.

So, here is a basic question that I think has import to this discussion:  Can the musical segments addressed by \editorialMark be nested and/or overlapping? 


If yes, they can be nested and/or overlapping, then each \editorialMark could map to a single annotation/comment/remark.  In which case, the concept of \editorialMark as describing the specific mark makes sense, and the musical segment is simply the entity on which the \editorialMark operates.

If this is the case, possibly better names might be \editorialRemark or \annotation.



However, if the musical segments addressed by \editorialMark-s must be distinct from one another, then we might have several marks/topics/comments in a single musical segment.  In that case, maybe the command should be named after the identification of this musical segment?

Based on some of the earlier posts, it seems like one of the outcomes of this command is to attach unique IDs to the start and end of this musical segment.  If this is true, then maybe the command should be named with regard to the fact that its main job is to identify and tag this musical segment, to which the editorial remarks and the alternatives will apply.

If that is the case, maybe the command should be named something like \identifyEditorialSegment or \editorialTag.


I don't really like these initial suggestions for this second conception of the command, but I'd like to get clarity on what the essential requirements are for any such usage.  (Do you need to have alternatives?  Do you need to have editorial marks?)

Like the \consists discussion, I think that getting clearer on the actual workings of the command may help inform an appropriate name.

HTH,

Elaine Alt
415 . 341 .4954                                           "Confusion is highly underrated"
address@hidden
Producer ~ Composer ~ Instrumentalist
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