Re: many users don't know about \shape

[David Nalesnik]

On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 11:42 PM, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:

Janek Warchoł <address@hidden> writes:

> 2013/5/11 David Kastrup <address@hidden>:
>> Janek Warchoł <address@hidden> writes:
>>> my experience (particularly with Fried project) shows that
>>> with regard to slurs and ties, LilyPond is very far from automated
>>> typesetting. If you want publication quality, you _have_ to tweak the
>>> output quite heavily - would you rather do this via setting
>>> control-points directly?  Actually, \shape is quite close to the
>>> spirit of automated engraving, because if the layout changes slightly,
>>> \shape modifications usually "adapt" and still produce good results.
>>
>> Not if there is a change in line/page breaking.
>
> Sure, but it's still about a thousand times more reliable than
> overriding control-points directly.

Hardly.  It's slightly more benign against different amonuts of
stretching/shrinking,

"Slightly"?  This strikes me as a bit of an exaggeration.

 

but when the slur positioning algorithm changes,
relative changes to control points will give unpredictable results.

As I said above, it is most useful when such layout details as line and page breaks are settled--as, of course, is directly overriding control points,

-David