Re: Maxima...

[Thomas Morley]

Hi Mark,

Am Sa., 19. Jan. 2019 um 02:32 Uhr schrieb Mark Probert <address@hidden>:

> However, being a newbie to this package, when I
> have a problem, or a perceived problem, I can either ask
> on this forum or not.

Nothing wrong with asking on this list.
Pretty often some weaknesses or eaven bugs become known in the code or
documentation this way.

> My post is about a non-intuitive
> feature--Why the rest and not the note?--that is not clearly
> documented ("If you need a maxima/large use Baroque note heads,
> there is no maxima notes in the standard set").

Well, it _is_ documented, imho
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/notation/writing-rhythms
starts with
"The durations of notes are entered using numbers and dots. The number
entered is based on the reciprocal value of the length of the note.
For example, a quarter note is designated using the numerical value of
4 as it is a 1/4 note, a half note using 2, an eighth using 8 and so
on. Durations as short as 128 notes can be entered but shorter values,
while possible, can only be entered as beamed notes. [1] Also see
Beams.

For notes longer than a whole use the \longa – double breve – and
\breve commands. A note with the duration of a quadruple breve is
possible using the \maxima command but is only supported within
ancient music notation. See Ancient notation. "

Isn't it sufficient for _usage_?

If reasons for decisions would be discussed/explained the docs would
blow up more and more.

In short, maxima-notes don't happen in _modern_ notation, thus no need
to implement a glyph for it. But Rest or MultiMesureRest may occur in
arbitrary length. In modern notation they are printed assembling
shorter glyphs or as a beam-like line with MultiMeasureRestNumber:
{
  \compressFullBarRests
  R1*7
  R1*16
  %% other input, same outcome
  R\maxima *2
}

So I'm fine with the design-decision.

Otoh, I would have expected
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/notation/note-head-styles
would show a maxima where available and a remark (or something
similar) where not.
I'll think about how to improve this...


Cheers,
  Harm

[1]
This is not exactly true for current versions. See:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2018-02/msg00640.html

For future versions there will be shorter values than 128 available.
https://sourceforge.net/p/testlilyissues/issues/5277/