fuzzy horizontal positioning

[Werner LEMBERG]

I would like to see the following implemented, which would *greatly*
enhance typesetting, reducing manual positioning a lot.

The problem: A symbol like `f' is normally positioned below the note
it is attached to.  However, since `f' is quite a tall glyph, it needs
a large amount of vertical space.  Especially in full scores, this can
lead to serious vertical spacing issues.  In many cases, however, the
`f' can be moved up considerably if it is slightly moved to the left
at the same time: either there is a rest before the note, or the
distance to the previous note is sufficiently large to do such a shift
without collision.  Obviously, this must be done manually currently.

The idea: We could introduce `fuzzy horizontal positioning', allowing
movable symbols like the `f' to deviate from its ideal position
automatically.  An algorithm could look like this:

  1. Do a normal layout and check whether there are movable symbols
     which stick out extremely in the vertical direction, and which
     detoriorate the vertical layout.

  2. Try to do a fuzzy horizontal positioning for all affected
     symbols.

  3. Continue with layout.

I have no idea whether this can be easily implemented...


    Werner