Re: doc work

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi again,

Am I the only one that thinks

    upper = { BLAH }
    \new Staff = "upper" \upper

is potentially confusing? I think it's too easy for a newbie to infer  
that the variable name and the context name need to match, which of  
course is not true. If I were re-coding the A.2.1 template (at least,  
with an eye to fix that particular problem), I would write

     upperNotes = \relative c'' {
       \clef treble
       \key c \major
       \time 4/4

       a4 b c d
     }

     lowerNotes = \relative c {
       \clef bass
       \key c \major
       \time 4/4

       a2 c
     }

     \score {
       \new PianoStaff = "PianoStaff_piano"
        <<
         \set PianoStaff.instrumentName = #"Piano  "
         \new Staff = "Staff_piano_upper" \upperNotes
         \new Staff = "Staff_piano_lower" \lowerNotes
       >>
       \layout { }
     }

Maybe it's too verbose for the examples... but it would be nice (IMO)  
to have something — even a note in the text — to make it clear that  
the names don't need to match.

Also, I'm not sure that it's good practice to have spaces in the  
instrumentName: this is just lazy programming, and may lead to  
problems later (e.g., when they decide to center-align the names).

Finally:
    1. Modern practice for vocal music engraving is to ALWAYS beam  
eighth notes; and,
    2. Including \autoBeamOff in these "simple" templates might be  
confusing.

Therefore, I think we should leave \autoBeamOff out of the mix, and  
either put a note to the effect of "for typesetting older vocal  
music, use \autoBeamOff" or (better yet, IMO) leave it for the vocal  
music section proper.

Cheers,
Kieren.