documentation request (or feature request) w.r.t. polyphony

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hey all,

To be honest, I'm getting a little tired of answering questions about  
"bugs" in Lilypond that are really just issues related to implicitly- 
instantiated voices, i.e., the << {} \\ {} >> construct.
Even writing (or seeing others write) "look at the docs on explicitly  
instantiating voices" is getting on my nerves.
The four examples in the last two days finally made me write this…

Any chance we should — or even just COULD — change the docs so that  
the *FIRST* thing newbies learn is explicitly-instantiated voicing,  
and only *LATER* are they introduced to the "shorthand" construct?

Better yet, why can't the shorthand automatically "do the right  
thing"? i.e.,

    << {} \\ {} >>

should be translated automagically into

  << {} \new Voice {} >>

That way, the *only* time anyone has to do any tweaking is when they  
*want* two brand new voices — which is (AFAIK) the rarest situation  
of all — in which case they'd have to do

  << \new Voice {} \new Voice {} >>

Am I the only one who thinks this would be, overall, a better default?
Kieren.