Re: Beam positions and time signature spacing

[David Kastrup]

Gilberto Agostinho <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi David,
>
> I am sorry if I expressed myself badly, I never wanted to say that "you are
> proposing to judge things solely by the eye, while I propose to only use
> strict rules". What I wrote before was just a comment that came to my head
> while reading your message; I think I would have better expressed myself by
> using something like: "we, as a group of people trying to improve LilyPond,
> should always be careful on how to judge things. I might personally like A
> or B, but using a book such as Gould's will always be the best way to go". 

No, it isn't.  If the very best authority states that A and V should be
kerned by -0.15 em spaces and this looks bad, there are a number of
possible explanations:

a) the font metrics for our font are different: an em space might have a
different relation to the letters
b) the glyphs may be different to what the authority was working with
c) the unadjusted placement may be different to what the authority was
   working with
d) there might be a typo in print or in interpreting the wording

One should never _discard_ what an authority has to say and should try
tracking its reasoning, but if the results from following instructions
don't actually lead to convincing results (in particular when comparing
them with the printed results), one needs to do better than follow
instructions.  And more often than not, heeding all constraints
mentioned in instructions at the same time is not even possible
sensibly, and then one needs to relax them using sensible priorities.

-- 
David Kastrup