Re: staff-space doesn't seem to work as documented

[Patrick McCarty]

On 2010-03-26, Phil Holmes wrote:
> In the PDF documentation for 2.12.3 and the online documentation for
> 2.13.16 it gives the syntax for reducing staff spacing as:
> 
> \override StaffSymbol #'staff-space = #1.5
> 
> If I use this syntax, I get an error:
> 
> error: syntax error, unexpected '{'
> \new Staff \with {\override StaffSymbol #'staff-space = #'1.5}
>                                                               { c''
> c'' c'' c'' }

I think there needs to be a space after the value 1.5, which should
hopefully fix your problem:

  \new Staff \with {\override StaffSymbol #'staff-space = #'1.5 }

Also, if you format your code on multiple lines, that will work too
(like it appears in the documentation), since line breaks are
considered to be spaces:

  \new Staff \with {
    \override StaffSymbol #'staff-space = #'1.5
  }

If you want to save yourself an extra keystroke, the 1.5 does not need
to be quoted:

  \new Staff \with {
    \override StaffSymbol #'staff-space = #1.5
  }

> If I use a syntax with parentheses (guessed by trial and error):
> 
> \override StaffSymbol #'staff-space = #'( . 1.5)

I wouldn't recommend this syntax, since ( . 1.5) is not a valid cons
cell in Scheme.  But that's an interesting observation!


-Patrick