Re: accidental too far away from notehead

[Phil Holmes]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Cc: "David Kastrup" <address@hidden>; <address@hidden>
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 12:15 PM
Subject: Re: accidental too far away from notehead


> On 13 janv. 2013, at 12:37, address@hidden wrote:
>
> > On 13 janv. 2013, at 12:12, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> > > Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden> writes:
> > >
> > > > Please consider this code:
> > > >
> > > > \version "2.17.10"
> > > >
> > > > \relative c''' {
> > > >  << { <gis cis eis gis>2 } \\
> > > >     { eis,2              } >>
> > > > }
> > > >
> > > > Attached you can find an image.  I think this is a formatting bug of
> > > > lilypond: The e sharp in the second voice should be directly placed in
> > > > front of the notehead since it is not part of the chord.  However, I'm
> > > > not sure, thus I'm writing to this mailing list :-)
> > > >
> > > > Is there a possibility to make lilypond automatically move the
> > > > accidental in the lower voice to the right so that it is not aligned
> > > > with the accidentals of the upper voice?
> > >
> > > \version "2.17.10"
> > >
> > > \relative c''' {
> > > << { <gis cis eis gis>2 } \\
> > >   { eis,2              } >>
> > > }
> > >
> > > \layout {
> > > \context {
> > >  \Staff
> > >  \remove "Accidental_engraver"
> > > }
> > > \context {
> > >  \Voice
> > >  \consists "Accidental_engraver"
> > > }
> > > }
> > >
> > > But obviously the accidental engraver should subdivide its input into
> > > vertically separate clusters and typeset each of them independently.
> >
> > On it, testing fix.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > MS
>
> So, the logic in Accidental_placement::add_accidental makes it such that 
> all accidentals applying to the same base note have the same X-offset. 
> Here, because there is an E-sharp in both octaves, the E-sharps line up. 
> Change E-sharp to an F-sharp or D-sharp in the lower voice and the problem 
> goes away.
>
> It seems like whoever wrote the function went through a lot of effort to 
> make this the case, so it is definitely a feature, not a bug.  Whether or 
> not it corresponds to best engraving practices I don't know, but it may be 
> worth it to check various engraving texts to see if the same pitch altered 
> in two different octaves can have accidentals at two different horizontal 
> locations.
>
> Cheers,
> MS


Gould says Octave accidentals are easiest to read when they align.  So this 
would make the current lilypond implementation correct.  She also recommends 
changing the layout to prevent accidentals being too far from their 
notehead - so ideally lilypond would place the upper E# close to the 
notehead (so the lower one would also be there) and then arrange the others 
traditionally.

--
Phil Holmes