Re: 2.21.1 change of behavior of \compressMMRests?

[Paul Scott]

On 5/4/20 2:10 AM, Mats Bengtsson wrote:
> On 2020-05-04 08:14, Valentin Villenave wrote:
> > On 5/3/20, Paul Scott <address@hidden> wrote:
> > > Out of simple curiosity what is the purpose of the \compressMMRests { }
> > > structure rather than the \set or \override action I would think of?
> > > I'm guessing \compressMMRests does \set \unset or \override \revert 
> > > pairs.
> > As you can see if you open the music-functions-init.ly file in your
> > LilyPond installation, it’s a fairly simple music function that relies
> > on the skipBars property:
> > https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/lilypond.git/tree/ly/music-functions-init.ly#n313 
> >
> > As does compressEmptyMeasures, formerly compressFullBarRests -- but
> > these are just a mere override:
> > https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/lilypond.git/tree/ly/property-init.ly#n168 
> >
> >
> > Now, your question is exactly why I felt the need to add a whole new
> > subsection to the Notation Reference:
> > http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.21/Documentation/notation/writing-parts#compressing-empty-measures 
> >
> > I hope this can answer your question (as well as the rationale behind
> > the renaming of FullbarRests into EmptyMeasures); please do tell us if
> > that seems unclear to you or if you have some suggestions to improve
> > that part of the documentation.
>
> What was the rationale to recommend (and only mention) 
> \compressMMRests instead of \compressEmptyMeasures in 
> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.21/Documentation/notation/writing-rests#full-measure-rests? 
> In my opinion, it's a bit more cumbersome to use the music function 
> syntax than the macro \compressEmptyMeasures, especially for 
> unexperienced LilyPond users. The situation with multi-measure note 
> durations, described in your new subsection, should be extremely rare 
> in practice (perhaps except in cases where the user made a typo in the 
> input). During all my years of lilypond use, I've never suffered from 
> the problem and I've used the predecessor of \compressEmptyMeasures 
> quite a lot.
>
>    Mats
Thank you, Mats.

I couldn't have said it better.

Paul