Re: es means ees???

[David Kastrup]

Richard Shann <address@hidden> writes:

> On Tue, 2014-10-07 at 11:04 +0900, Graham Percival wrote:
>> On Mon, Oct 06, 2014 at 01:41:30PM +0200, David Kastrup wrote:
>> > Richard Shann <address@hidden> writes:
>> > 
>> > > Here, instead of ees, is written es.
>> > 
>> > I read
>> > 
>> >     In Dutch, aes is contracted to as, but both forms are accepted in
>> >     LilyPond. Similarly, both es and ees are accepted. This also applies
>> >     to aeses / ases and eeses / eses. Sometimes only these contracted
>> >     names are defined in the corresponding language files.
>> 
>> Yes.  In case anybody was wondering, I deliberately moved the "as"
>> and "es" contractions from the tutorial into the NR ages ago.  For
>> people unfamiliar with that notation, it's easier to remember
>> "letter name plus -es or -is" rather than introducing all the
>> contractions.
>
> That was a good idea I think. What is unfortunate is that the default
> includes these contractions,

Uh, the contractions are the _proper_ names.  The non-contractions are
not correct note names in any language.

> with hindsight it might have been better to have the default be the
> simplest set of names with those that wanted to use the contractions
> including a language specific file (e.g.  nederlands).

I disagree.  There is nothing to be gained from using a notename
language nobody uses.  If we wanted that, we could take numbers.  I see
ees and aes more as a concession to computer-transliterated music than
to humans.  Now of course your main concern via Denemo _is_
computer-transliterated music but that does not mean that everybody
else's music should look that way.

> But this is a very minor thing, perhaps as a matter of style the ly
> directory code should avoid the contractions?

I'd consider that bad style.  Again, the "contractions" are not sloppy
writing or anything.  They are the _proper_ German and Dutch note names.
That's like stating for some hypothetical computer language we should
not have

   Variable x is y, was z
   Variable x has grue, had worm

but rather

   Variable x is y, ised z
   Variable x has grue, hased worm

because it is more regular and easier to get for non-English speakers.

-- 
David Kastrup