Re: \key

[Graham Percival]

On Sun, 29 Sep 2002 03:20:54 -0700
Paul Scott <address@hidden> wrote:
> Jan Nieuwenhuizen wrote:
> >Paul Scott <address@hidden> writes:
> >Ah.  Are you certain that, if you think about it, you are not
> >confusing `quite logical' with `more like Finale happens to do it'?
> >
> By quite logical I meant the least work.  Finale and some other GUI 
> programs do it that way to save work.  I have just installed RoseGarden 
> and I see that it has a 'Follow key' button.

I don't think that it would save work.  The difference between writing
"f" and "fis" is very small, and avoids problems with the "f" means "#f"
in D major:
- What if you write the piece in D major, then decide to make it G major
instead?  Now you need to go back and manually change all "c" to "cis".
- What if you're writing a piece with many key signatures changes?  You'd
have to remember where each change was, so that you'd know whether to
write "fis" or "f" to get an f-sharp.  That might be easy in a one-page
classical piece, but what about a twenty-page orchestral score of
modern music?
- What if you're writing a piece in C major and you want to include a
melody from a different piece in D major?  You'd have to cut and paste,
and then go through adding "is".

> Are you referring some particular software.  I use Mozilla mail-news and 
> don't know what that option means.  Why would this only be happening in 
> this thread?

As others have pointed out, we reply to you and the list; that means that
you get two copies.  That's the normal way we reply to emails; it means
that even somebody who isn't on the list gets our replies.

Cheers,
- Graham