RE: GDP Repeats, Scheme code & extra braces

[Palmer, Ralph]

Greetings -

> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 6
> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:03:10 -0700
> From: Graham Percival <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: GDP: first public draft, NR 1.4 Repeats
> To: "Francisco Vila" <address@hidden>
> Cc: lilypond-user Mailinglist <address@hidden>
> Message-ID: <address@hidden>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> 
> On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:00:06 +0200
> "Francisco Vila" <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> 
> > - As for standard policy of Scheme code writing, I don't know if,
but
> > here are two mixed styles, #'((volta #f) etc, (w/o spaces) and #'( (
> > volta #f ) (with spaces). I prefer not to write spaces rounding
> > parentheses in Scheme code.
> 
> Hmm.  I prefer having no spaces if there's a single item, but if
> there's multiple (foo) inside a #'( ... ) list, I find them easier
> to read without spaces.
> 
> I don't have any firm feelings about this, though.
> 

I think (speaking as a tyro regarding Scheme)  the spaces make it easier
for me to decipher on a first pass on a fairly simple piece of Scheme
coding, and I would be surprised if they confused regular Scheme users.
Therefore, my preference in the NR, would be to include spaces. I do
confess to being unsure about exactly when and where spaces are required
and where they are optional in LilyPond code. I will continue to use
extraneous spaces in Scheme code unless someone makes an Executive
Decision (to which I will comply).

> 
> > - This is very personal: the syntax of \alternate is clear from the
> > examples, but I always have to explain why one has to write the
extra
> > pair of braces. I suppose that the number of alternatives is
unknown,
> > that's why they are required. Forgive me if you think this is not
the
> > best place to explain it, or if this has not to be detailed in the
> > docs at all.
> 
> That's a great point!  We should include a sentence about this the
> first time it comes up.
> 
> Cheers,
> - Graham
> 

The braces are not "extra" - I believe they delimit (identify?) the
arguments to "\alternative". There can be up to as many alternatives as
there are volte. If you still want an additional sentence, I can add
something like

"where @var{musicexpr} is a music expression.  Alternate endings can be
produced using @code{\alternative}. [Begin added text] In order to
delimit the alternate endings, the 
group of alternatives must be enclosed in a set of braces. [End added
text.]  If there are more repeats than
there are alternate endings, the earliest repeats are given the first
alternative.

I think I would find it more confusing.

Peace,

Ralph