Re: GSoC 2016

[Paul Morris]

Hi Urs,

> On Feb 4, 2016, at 4:20 AM, Urs Liska <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> Hi Paul,
> 
> Am 27.01.2016 um 02:37 schrieb Paul Morris:
>> While we’re at it, one thing I’ve thought about is simplifying vertical 
>> spacing changes.  Basically something like this[1] but possibly integrated 
>> into LilyPond.  One idea is that alongside padding, minimum-distance, and 
>> basic-distance, there could be a property like “scaling”.  Then the 
>> properties padding, minimum-distance, and basic-distance would each be 
>> multiplied by “scaling” before being put into effect.  So you could do 
>> things like:
>> 
>> \new Staff \with {
>>  \override VerticalAxisGroup.default-staff-staff-spacing.scaling = #1.2
>> } { … }
>> 
>> \paper {
>>  system-system-spacing.scaling = #0.9
>> }
>> 
>> That gives the user one property to change to simply increase or decrease 
>> vertical spacing without having to look up default values (or guess) or have 
>> to decide whether to change padding, minimum-distance, or basic-distance or 
>> some combination of them.
>> 
>> Thoughts on this idea in general?  And/or as a GSoC project?  (I’m not sure 
>> that it would be enough or well-suited for GSoC.)
>> 
>> [1] 
>> https://github.com/openlilylib/openlilylib/tree/master/notation-snippets/scale-vertical-spacing
> 
> Did you get any feedback on this so far?

Just from you.

> I think this is a very important area for improvements, as the layout
> settings are still somewhat confusing for many users. However, I'm not
> sure it's "big" enough to make a GSoC project. Things like your
> suggested function could very well be integrated as regular patches.

I think you’re right, not big enough for a GSOC project.  At most we could open 
a tracker for it.  Maybe I’ll get around to working on it later. 

> OTOH, I've just factored out a "page-layout" package
> (https://github.com/openlilylib/page-layout). The part I've already
> moved from the old openLilyLib is about choosing alternative sets of
> breaks, but this package could (should) grow in several directions. In
> any case it might be a way to make your original snippet more
> prominently accessible.

Ok, good to know.  I think the first/best option would be to add the scaling 
functionality to LilyPond itself.

Cheers,
-Paul