Re: not too bad for a beginner ... but i need help

[Mats Bengtsson]

> Hello,
> 
> i am trying to typeset some piece i wrote several years ago, and so far so 
> good,
> i got the first 2 mesures! have a couple of thing to ask (or say) (my lilypond
> file content is below) before to go ahead
> 
>    i use GNU LilyPond 1.5.14.jcn1
> 
>    [it's ok for me to wait for bug corrections, i could not install guile 1.4
>     anyway and quite like to help people on this list to test their fantastic
>     tool]
> 
>    [there are many things i do by copying things i have seen, i don't always
>     understand what i do]
> 
> 1.
> 
> i wanted to have no time signature, and used the following commands
> 
>        \property Score.timing = ##f
>        \property Staff.TimeSignature \override #'style = #'()
>          
>        but it did not produced the expected result: i was unable to ask
>        lilypond not to display any sign at all, it always draws the "C" or 4/4
>        
>        it 'refuse' to let it without and to start to draw notes closer to the
>        clef, how can i ask for that?

See the Reference manual, section "Tuning output", subsection
"Invisible grobs".

> 2.
> 
> if point 1. can be solved, i would like to place bar-lines myself, and wish to
> be able to have dash-bar-lines (thin dashed barline, for visual help for the
> musiciens, not for real beat weight distinction)
> 
>          does this feature exists? [the bar-lines i saw in examples are always
>          'traditional' ones, couldn't find thin dashed ones]

There are several ways to handle irregular bar lines, one is
to use the macro \cadenzaOn. Note that Lilypond only will consider
line breaks at bar lines. I don't know if dashed bar lines are
available at the moment. 

> 3.
> 
> in the metronome piece of text:
> 
>        #(define note '(columns
>           ((font-relative-size . -2) (music "noteheads-2" ((kern . -0.1) 
> "flags-stem")))))
> 
>        the note is reduced, but not the stem? also, the stem is not exactly 
> well
>        positioned, it seems to calculate its position based on the 'normal' 
> note
>        size (it is slightly in the note)
> 
>        in my example, it clashes (the stem) with the text on the above line, 
> i'm
>        sure its possible to reduce its size, but i don't know how

You can always insert an extra (font-relative-size . -3) or whatever 
for the flags-stem. For the position, I suspect the example in the
manual hasn't been fine-tuned enough.

> also, i wanted to have "<=" to 42, not "=", but couldn't compile (and couldn't
> find the mathematical sign for it, nicer then the text "<="

Try " $\\leq$ 42". Unfortunately, it seems you don't get the 
desired size. The reason is that Lilypond bypasses the ordinary
font selection mechanism in LaTeX. 

> 4.
> 
> it does not draw ties neither decrescendo, may be this is known problem in 
> 1.5.14

Both ties and decrescendo look well when I try your example
(with 1.5.14). It may be a problem with your xdvi setup, 
have you tried to look at a postscript version of the output?

> 5.
> 
> the chord does not get drawn properly: although acceptable, it would be nice 
> to
> have what Han-Wen suggested:
> 
>      all pitches between two pitches:  We could make special notation for the
>      latter, eg:
>               
>                  | 
>                  |
>                 X|
>                 ||
>                 || 
>                 X
>               
>               (X = notehead).

Something for the future wish list.

> 6.
> 
> the piano staff name clashes with the bracket: i red about it, but couldn't 
> find
> a solution in examples (or may be i am blind?) of course all staff names 
> should
> be written with same indent, slightly left shifted, couldn't find such an
> example, sorry to ask

First of all, you probably want it vertically centered. 
Try \property PianoStaff.instrument = "Piano    " instead
(the blanks at the end of the string will move it away to
the left, another solution is to set the padding grob property
of InstrumentName).

> 7. 
> 
> in the header, intrument names, i wanted to use:
> 
>    #(define title-instr `("pour Piano et 2 Cl. en Si" ,text-flat))
>    ...
>    \header{
>      ...
>      instrument = `,title-instr
>    }
> 
>      but it didn't like it    

The header information is passed directly to LaTeX by the 
ly2dvi script, so you should use LaTeX solutions. The TeX
header file included by Lilypond does actually include
the file feta20.tex which contains macro definitions for
all the font symbols. Thus, you could say

instrument = "pour Piano et 2 Cl. en Si \fetachar\fetaflat"

> 8.
> 
> very important:
> 
>     where can i find description of all strings i can use in
>          (music "...")                

Unfortunately, the best documentation at the moment is the
file feta20.afm. 

>     where can i find exhaustive list of properties?

They are all available in the on-line documentation, 
click on "Manual" and then on "Index of internals:".
If you built Lilypond yourself, the same information
(except the typeset examples) is available in info format
(in Documentation/user/out/lilypond-internals.info* if
make works correctly).

> many thanks for help
> lilypond is really great
> david

I added a few comments on your example file below:

> ;; -- prelogique.ly content
> 
> papersize = "a4"
This is default!
> \include "paper16.ly"
> 
> stemDown = \property Voice.Stem \override #'direction = #-1
> stemUp = \property Voice.Stem \override #'direction = #1
> stemBoth = \property Voice.Stem \revert #'direction

I hope you know that all these and many more macros already are 
defined by default (see property-init.ly).

> #(define f '((bold italic) "f"))

If you want the same layout as given by \f, you should use
((dynamic) "e")m ((dynamic) "ff"), ((dynamic) "ppp")
and so on.