Tall system makes 2.13.26 give other systems too much vertical space

[Richard Sabey]

I find that with some of my Lilypond scores v.2.13.26 lays the score out on more pages than v.2.13.17 did, e.g. 4 pages instead of 3 or 28 instead of 18.

An example, as tiny as I can make it, follows. With the default font size of 20 and paper size A4, v.2.13.26 lays this out on 16 systems and lays them out 4 to a page on 4 pages.

This music could easily fit onto 2 pages. Proof: the music is one tall 4/4 bar followed by 112 short ones. Add the line

showLastLength = R1*112

This omits only the first bar. and v.2.13.26 lays it out on 2 pages with 10 staves on page 1.

If the \paper block is omitted, to allow a ragged last bottom, there are still 4 pages, this time containing 4, 5, 5 and 1 systems. Again, a needlessly large number of pages, where it would only need the moving of one system to avoid the needless 4th page.

Tinier examples, with all staves vertically short, don't show this bug. However, even if there is just one very tall system and all the rest are short, v.2.13.26 lays them out as if they all needed (roughly) as much space as the very tall system.

This output is in my opinion much worse than it was, at any rate for the sort of music I'm typesetting, where it's fairly likely that a piece will have a very tall bar somewhere.

I looked among the most recent issues but it seems none of them are this one. Is it issue 1061? But issue 1061's example has \version "2.13.14", but the change I notice happened after version 2.13.14: 2.13 26 is much worse than 2.13.17.

Is this a bug? Is there a simple user fix? Lilypond's output isn't erroneous, I admit. That's why I sent this e-mail to the user group rather than immediately to the bug list.

Richard

%%% begin example
\version "2.13.26"

\paper
{
        ragged-last-bottom    = ##f
}

rhMusic =
{
    << d'''4^\f \\ f'4_\f >>
    \repeat unfold 451 f'
}

lhMusic =
{
    \clef bass
    << f'4^\f \\ g,,4_\f >>
    \repeat unfold 451 g
}

pedalling =
{
    \set Staff.pedalSustainStyle = #'bracket
    s4\sustainOn s2.\sustainOff
}

\score
{
    \new PianoStaff
    <<
        \new Staff << \rhMusic >>
        \new Staff << \lhMusic \pedalling >>
    >>
    \layout { }
}
%%% end example

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