Re: Proposed new available and recommended behavior of \relative

[Graham Percival]

On Thu, Mar 07, 2013 at 08:06:24PM +0100, David Kastrup wrote:
> 
> The idea is that \relative { ... } (namely \relative used without an
> explicit reference pitch) uses the first note inside as the reference
> pitch.  That is, if the first note happens to be written as fis'' it
> will sound as fis'' (absolute pitch).

I don't like this, since it mixes the meanings of ' within a {}
scope.  I mean, with that change and given the input:
  \relative { c' c' }
the first c' means "middle C"
the second c' means "jump an octave higher"

Whereas keeping the explicit initial pitch:
  \relative c' { c' c' }
the c' outside the {} means "middle C"
each c' inside the {} means "jump an octave higher"

Is it really such a typing burden to add a c' between "relative"
and "{" in order to make the file easier to read?  I know that
David knows this, but just to remind people, you can absolutely do
things like
  \relative a'' { a b }
  \relative f,, { f d }

instead of using an octave of C for the initial pitch.

- Graham