Re: a better convert-ly

[Han-Wen Nienhuys]

address@hidden writes:
> > The syntax of basic music input hasn't changed appreciably since
> > lilypond-2.0. For the future, we have plans to build a GNOME-based GUI
> > for tweaking, which completely separates out tweaks into different
> > files.  I don't really see what else we can do.
> 
> I didn't yet get any response to my ideas about outputting an intermediate 
> format.. does this mean it's a bad idea?

It's a nice idea, but if the "lowlevel" file is going to be edited
automatically, it doesn't make sense to try make it
human-readable. Just use what comes out of input/no-notation/to-xml.ly

> I do not want to criticise the current \lyricsto system much; it is good, 
> covers everything a normal person needs, and it works fine for me. It is just 
> that I have a feeling that there should exist a better way of notating 
> lyrics. Concerns include:
> - Lyrics have durations when \lyricsto is used. This is unused information 
> and 
> hence slightly unclean in some sense.
> - It is difficult to do \lyricsto sequentially (like {\lyricsto A { bla } 
> \lyricsto B { blob } })
> - I sometimes have a feeling that the system for ignoring melismata could be 
> done nicer. I don't have any concrete suggestion right now though.
> - It would be nice to be able to do multi-stanza as in the attached png 
> (which 
> is post-edited lily output). I suppose that this could require an enormous 
> amount of work for very little gain (so far I'm the only person who requested 
> it, and there are very few scores where I would use it myself).
> 
> I want to stress again that these are concerns for far far future, I don't 
> seriously think they are needed anytime soon. It's just to demonstrate that 
> syntax still can need to change.

They are not limitation of the syntax as such, but rather of the
features available; I reckon that the basic syntax for simple songs
will remain essentially unchanged (there isn't much to reduce there
anyway).

As for the more difficult things ; they are -as said- more
difficult. IMO, the proper attitude is to be glad that more difficult
hacks are possible, and accept that automatic language conversion can
not always deal with them.

-- 

 Han-Wen Nienhuys   |   address@hidden   |   http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen