Re: roman numerals

[David Nalesnik]

Hi,

On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 7:23 AM, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
> Kevin Patrick Barry <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> Thank you for the updated code; I can put an accidental in front of
>> the numeral now just fine, but I can't seem to put one next to any of
>> the numerals, or on its own (for altering the third above the bass).
>> I tried various combinations of the following and the output either
>> gave errors or printed the letters 's,' 'f,' or 'n' instead of the
>> relevant accidentals:
>>
>> \markup \rN { sIV  f7 s5 }
>> or
>> \markup \rN { sIV  7f 5s }
>> or
>> \markup \rN { sIV  f 7 5 s }
>> or even \rN { V n } seems to not work.
>>
>> Perhaps I have misunderstood the syntax?  I am also a theory teacher
>> and the time saved would be very helpful!
>
> Numbers are not word constituents in markup, so you likely need to write
> "f7" and "7f" here.
>
> --
> David Kastrup
>

Right now, there's no capability to parse the inversion numbers for
alterations. At the moment, you can add a single accidental before the
inversion figure, but it's not intrinsic to it.

This looks fine for simple cases like this:

\markup \rN { V f 9 }

But, there's no implied relationship between the flat and the "9".

As far as multiple alterations in a column, you could fudge it:

\markup \rN { sIV f 7
  \concat {
    \translate #'(-0.7 . 0) {
      \teeny \raise #0.4 \sharp 5 }
  }
}

But this is hardly optimal.

I'll look into specifying alterations for the elements of the column,
and automating the alignment.

The function as it exists is designed to cover the majority of cases
you might see in an undergraduate theory course.  It isn't designmd
for complex interactions of figured bass and Roman numerals, or for
lead-sheet symbols (though you can do some things with notenames and
strings).

-David