Re: flags, beams and stem length in forced directions - output improvement

[Janek Warchoł]

2010/12/27 Han-Wen Nienhuys <address@hidden>
> Why don't you try to find some scans of reputable editions to see what
> the standard behavior is in this case?

Because i believe the situation is quite different.
Would it be feasible for an engraver to have different flags for many
different stem lengths? No, perhaps there would even be problems with
manufacturing such dies. Is it feasible for a computer program like
LilyPond? Of course!
Generally speaking, i don't like to prove things by providing
examples; i prefer to prove them by reasoning. I'm that kind of guy
who doesn't take anything for granted, you know :) I'm sure there are
things that we can do *better* than the hand engravers because of the
technological advantage, and therefore i don't want to do things in
some manner only because engravers did so.
Surely, they had their reasons, but looking at the scores won't
explain what the reasons were. Maybe they don't exist now? For
example, according to this article
http://icking-music-archive.org/lists/sottisier/sottieng.pdf the
reasons behind steep angles of the beams in the 19th century were the
physical limits of printing technology (page 4) - this sounds
reasonable. Now we have better printers and the standards changed.

I hope this doesn't sound too arrogant...

2010/12/27 Carl Sorensen <address@hidden>:
>
> I have now reviewed the engraving books.  I will give the answers that they
> have.

Thanks for sharing this!

I must admit that i'm surprised to see a shorter variation of flag in
the Stone scan. However there is (should be?) at least one
intermediate stem length between 3.5 and 3. What shall we do with it?

> The bottom line, for me?  I think there should be separate single and double
> flags for 3-space stems.  I don't think they should be scaled from the
> existing flags.  I think they should be designed separately and added to the
> font.  But in order to get this to happen, I think we need some examples
> from well-engraved scores.  And I don't have a good collection.

Hopefully i'll learn Metafont and try to add it myself, but before
this happens maybe it would be good to have those scaled flags?
Wouldn't it be better than the current situation?

yours Pondly,
Janek