Re: Learning Manual comments

[Mats Bengtsson]

Trevor Daniels wrote:
> > 3.3.4 I was confused about the hash signs (#). 
> > The statement about why
> > they are needed before all values in a \set 
> > statement is very clear,
> > but then the subsequent example has
> >    \set Staff.instrumentName = "Soprano"
> > without a hash sign. Is this because "Soprano" is 
> > a LilyPond string
> > rather than a Scheme value?
> >
> >     
>
> Hmm.  It seems like the first # is optional for
> a text string, but not for other types, which explains
> why the example worked.  I'll add the # to the example 
> to avoid this confusion.  Sorry!
>   
I seem to recall that we had a discussion some year ago, on this issue 
and how
to do in the documentation. You may want to take a look.
> By default the beam thickness is set to 0.48 of a
> staff-space (Note the IR is wrong is this respect;
> it says in units of line-thickness, which is normally
> right, but not for beams).  So to move a beam with
> its top edge aligned to a position with its centre
> aligned you'll need to move it an extra 0.24.
>
>   
Right! This is a property name that's used on many different layout objects
and is included in several different interfaces. The problem with the
documentation is the old usual one that there's only one documentation
string per property name, no matter how many different uses there are
for the same property name. Strangely enough, there's also a property
called beam-thickness, that's only used for StemTremolo objects.
I cannot see why the property name "thickness" could not be used in that
application as well. On the other hand, it may be less obvious what 
"thickness"
refers to for a stem tremolo, compared to other objects like stems or 
beams or ...
Still, for consistency, I'd propose to use the property name "thickness" 
also
for stem tremolos.

> > 4.6.3 and 4.6.5 What are the default units when 
> > setting page margins?
> > I'm guessing mm, but it would be helpful to state 
> > the default and
> > maybe mention how to use inches (for those of us 
> > who still need to use
> > those ancient units occasionally).
> >
> >     
>
> Sections 4.6 and 4.7 were lifted straight from the 
> old manual, I believe, and I haven't checked them out
> yet.
>
> Yes, mm.  I'll add this.  I'll hunt out what the
> default is and say how to use inches.  But I'll
> defer that until I get round to checking this 
> section.
>   
Yes, it seems that the default is mm. If you want inch, just say
\paper{
left-margin = 0.5\in
}
You can also specify pt, mm and cm as units:
\paper{
top-margin = 36\pt
bottom-margin = 1.2\cm
left-margin = 10\mm
}

   /Mats