Re: Guitar String Numbers

[Mats Bengtsson]

> Thanks for that clear explanation.  I thought that the benefit of using
> \markup was that lilypond "knows" about the space it takes up.  Is
> that the reason for using it, or is there some other or others?

You mean using ^\markup{ text } compared to ^"text"? As long as
you don't use any of the markup commands, these alternatives should
be exactly equivalent.

> BTW, that new search feature is *super*.

(I'm not sure anyone understands what new search feature you refer to,
but I hope whoever feels responsible appreciates your gratitude anyway.)

> The centering problem is that the left edge of the ring is aligned with
> the left edge of the note, so the ring's contents are moved to the
> right.  It doesn't really put the number in the center of the circle, it
> puts the left edge of the circle where the left edge of the number would
> have been and moves the number to the right into the center of the
> circle.  In text, any other way would be very unsatisfactory. You
> want_g_string to become_(g)_string, not(g)string.
>
> I couldn't find any way of using backspaces ($\\!$) with \markup, nor
> could I figure out how to use \center-align with \\textcircled and
> \markup.  I just got errors or no effect.  Maybe there's a way.  I tried
> and failed to find it.  Perhaps since \center-align and \textcircled
> both do alignment, they don't play nice together.  Just a guess.

No! First of all, \center-align only works within a single markup and
makes sure that if you have several lines in your markup, these will be
aligned to each other. Then, LilyPond views all these lines as a single
box and determines the alignment of that box based on the setting of the
self-alignment-X property of the TextScript or RehearsalMark object,
respectively. I'm still convinced that the problems you notice, appear
because LilyPond misinterpretes the length of the markup (since it
doesn't understand the LaTeX code), so when it tries to center this
imaginary box containing the full markup, it fails.
The proper solution would be to add a markup command that circles its
argument, similarly to the \box command. This has been discussed
several times on the mailing list, but nobody has taken the time to
implement it. I'm afraid I don't know Postscript well enough to do the
job.

  /Mats