Re: Crescendo-Decrescendo

[Mats Bengtsson]

Fairchild wrote:
> Been investigating instructions for specifying crescendos and decrescendos
> in version 2.4.3.  For several things, either: a) I don't understand, b) the
> documentation needs enhancement, and/or c) implementation should be changed.
> My test bed is attached.
>
> 1)  The User Guide, Section 5.7.13 Dynamics gives a misleading example:
>         \setTextCresc
>         c \< d e f\!
>         \setHairpinCresc
>         e\> d c b\!
> The \setHairpinCresc is not necessary because the \setTextCresc is only good
> once.  Entering \setHairpinCresc does cancel \setTextCresc if entered before
> the once is encountered.

I reported this as a bug (alternatively a request for documentation
if it was an intended feature) some months ago and have renewed the
bug report today.

> 2)  \setTextCresc has no effect for a decrescendo. Use both
>         \set decrescendoText = "Decrescendo "
>         \set decrescendoSpanner = #'dashed-line
> And these are only good once.

If I tell you that there are both \setTextDecresc and \setTextDim,
you might understand better why the setting is not done by
\setTextCresc.

> 3)  To change crescendo use both
>         \set crescendoText = "Crescendo "
>         \set crescendoSpanner = #'dashed-line
> Do not use \setTextCresc, it overrides.
What do you mean? Take a look at the definitions of these macros
in /usr/share/lilypond/*/ly/spanners-init.ly (or wherever the file
is installed on your machine).

> 4)  Internals document allows line, dashed-line, dotted-line, and hairpin.
> hairpin overrides text
> line gives dashed-line

Explain more clearly what you mean!

> 5)  No way found to change default italic font, within \markup or with
> \override.

See 
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.5/Documentation/user/out-www/lilypond/Font-selection.html#Font-selection


> 6)  \markup is not necessary.  Just use "text".

That's entirely true as long as you typeset plain text and are happy
with the default layout. \markup is intended for all these situations
where you want to do something more fancy. See also the email threads
on "Re: Doc help: \markup{} vs \mark" and "markup{} vs TextScript"
in the archives for lilypond-devel, May this year. If you think there
are some aspects that have are still missing in the latest version of
the manual, I'm sure that Graham would be happy for your input.

   /Mats