Music for the Martians?

[Arjan Bos]

On 23 nov 2006, at 3:10, Graham Percival wrote:

> I think this is referring to people with 6-fingers.  Typing e8_1  
> means "first finger"; typing e8_"1" prints "1" as a TextScript.
>
> > But what are martians and why are they playing my music? Shouldn't  
> > this message simply state that a 6 is a strange number to indicate  
> > a finger with?
>
> Yes, but somebody was feeling creative when they wrote that  
> code.  :) What message do you propose to change it with?

I thought about that and I know that it is non-sensical to have 6 in  
there as a finger indication. But I decided to put it in and it is  
right to put it in for my purpose, otherwise it wouldn't be in. So I  
feel that this message can be safely removed from lilypond. Oh, and  
2.8 didn't have that message and I did not confuse myself with six  
fingers either there ;-)

So please remove it, or if it is felt that it is a just message,  
please state that it something like:
Warning: fingering notation for finger number <n>.

where <n> is greater than 5, or 4 depending on the instrument being  
described. In guitar music, we normally only deal with four fingers  
as the thumb is at the other side of the neck. So here it would be  
appropriate to give the message at finger number 5. Since it's  
clearly instrument dependent, and lilypond doesn't know about the  
instrument that the music is intended for, it is a strong indication  
that you cannot tell when to display this warning. So this is in  
favour of removing it.

Groetjes,
Arjan

---
They both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant  
than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things.

-- Discworld scientists at work  (Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites)


---
It was funny how people were people everywhere you went, even if the  
people concerned weren't the people the people who made up the phrase  
"people are people everywhere" had traditionally thought of as  
people. And even if you weren't virtuous, as you had been brought up  
to understand the term, you did like to see virtue in other people,  
provided it didn't cost you anything.

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant)