Re: Updates to bagpipe.ly

[Daniel Dadap]

Sven Axelsson wrote:
> I am the author of the bagpipe.ly mode included in the Lilypond
> distribution. I'm sorry I haven't been very visible here the last
> several years. I haven't had much user feedback for the bagpipe mode,
> although I know there are people out there using it.

Hi Sven. You are right, there are people out there using it, and I'm one of 
them. Thanks very much for making it easy to engrave bagpipe music with 
Lilypond! (I'm not a very advanced Lilypond user, so I can't comment much on 
your actual questions about default layout tweaks. I can say that I never mix 
bagpipe and non-bagpipe scores, so personally, I'm fine with doing as much as 
you like by default.)

> Perhaps a starting point would be if someone could have a look at what
> I'm doing in https://github.com/svenax/bagpipemusic/. The relevant
> file is bagpipe_new.ly, and there are lots of examples on how to use
> it in the repo as well.

Actually, I was looking for a newer version of bagpipe.ly when I found this 
thread. Specifically, I was entering a piece that included an embellishment 
that I couldn't find in bagpipe.ly: it's a lot like a d doubling, but goes to c 
instead of e. I'm not sure what it's called, maybe just an alternate d 
doubling? Anyway, I couldn't find it, so for now I've just put it in manually 
as "\grace { \small g32[ d c] }", but it would be nice if this could be added 
to future versions of bagpipe.ly (or perhaps a macro to make it easier to 
define custom embellishments?) Sorry, I can't help with a suggestion for what 
to call it, since I have no idea myself.

> The new mode is not backwards compatible with the old one, so I would
> have to include some convert-ly rules if approved. Or perhaps it could
> actually be included as bagpipe_new.ly, not replacing the old one.

I did notice when I dropped in bagpipe_new.ly and updated my \include 
statements to include the new file that \hideKeySignature was gone. (I always 
use this, since I don't see much point in showing the key signature.) I removed 
\hideKeySignature, and re-engraved my scores, and noticed that all of my cs and 
fs had sharp symbols next to them... not good. I looked at some of the examples 
in your git repository and found that \bagpipeKey was what I wanted, but other 
than that, I didn't notice any other compatibility issues.

Might I suggest including a definition for \hideKeySignature that just does 
\bagpipeKey, for easy backwards compatibility? If the remaining compatibility 
issues are as minor as this, maybe you won't need to call it bagpipe_new. (Or 
maybe that's the point of your convert.ly rules? I guess that would be a reason 
for me to explicitly use version numbers in my input files.)

Anyway, the new spacings look nice; thanks for bagpipe.ly!

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