Re: \context for named Staff

[Trevor Daniels]

Marc Hohl wrote Saturday, August 22, 2009 7:30 PM


> Jay Anderson schrieb:
> > [...]
> >  So what do you think? Should the "SmallStaff" just
> > be left as a snippet?
> >
> > If it is a snippet ideally I'd want to do something like:
> >
> > \include "small_staff.lyi"
> > \score {
> >   \new SmallStaff {...}
> > }
> >
> > How would one make small_staff.lyi so this worked? This way it 
> > would
> > be bundled with the other global variables. The only way I found 
> > was
> > to do this:
> >
> > small_staff.lyi
> > =====
> > \context {
> >   \Score
> >   \accepts "SmallStaff"
> > }
> > \context {
> >   \Staff
> >   \type "Engraver_group"
> >   \name "SmallStaff"
> >   \alias "Staff"
> >
> >   fontSize = #-3
> >   \override StaffSymbol #'staff-space = #(magstep -3)
> > }
> As the discussion here seems to be stuck, I want to push it a bit 
> :)

I'm not keen on including this in the sources
as it is not a complete solution.  For example,
it does not permit scaled lyrics to be attached
to a voice in the staff, as might be required
in an ossia or piano reduction.  For that you
would need a scaled StaffGroup and a scaled
PianoStaff.  And what about scaled chords, etc?
The present documented method using \with
is cumbersome but general.

> 1) What about the name?
>  SmallStaff? CueStaff? QuoteStaff?

Definitely not CueStaff or QuoteStaff, as it
would not be used for cue or quoted notes.
ScaledStaff?

> 2) There seems to be only one reference for font size and staff 
> size,   \override StaffSymbol #'staff-space = #2/3
>    fontSize = #(magnification->font-size 2/3)
>  as Mark Polesky pointed out. Is this widely acceped?

If it is to be useful there should be a way
of specifying the scale of the reduction (or
expansion).

> 3) Should this definition go to ly/engraver-init.ly, or should a 
> seperate file
>   be provided?

It should go in the LSR

> 4) Where should this feature be documented? Is input.itely the 
> right place?

No.  If a scaled staff definition is to be
included in the sources (and I oppose this)
there are many places in the documentation that
would need to be changed.  There's no point
in making this change unless all the documentation
is changed to use it.  So at least the following
need attention:

NR 1.6.1 for the basic definition
NR 1.6.2 Ossia staves
NR 5.1.1 Contexts explained
LM 4.3.2 Size of objects (extensively)
LM 4.3.3 Length and thickness of objects

plus a number of snippets used in the docs
which scale staves.

Trevor