Re: Concepts that may be missing (or are at least hidden) in LilyPond

[Urs Liska]

Am 27.04.2015 um 15:37 schrieb Kieren MacMillan:
> Hi Urs,
>
> > I would strongly oppose to *replacing* the current approach with a container 
> > based approach (I don't think you are even considering that, I just want to 
> > make that clear).
> +1
>
> > What would be good to have is a notion of "select everything in measures 2-4 - over 
> > all possible parts" as this is something that is currently more or less impossible.
> Better perhaps would be “select everything from moment X to moment Y (which may 
> or may not correspond to a barline in one or more voices)”.
> Your example would be a proper subset of that functionality.

Ah, you're right.

That makes me think of one implication of the question: About what 
"level" are we talking about right now? Are we talking about modifying 
the input files or about modifying the produced scores? This makes a 
significant difference.

When we're talking about modifying the input files (which is what we 
usually want when we say: "copy/remove from moment X to Y") This is 
something LilyPond wouldn't be responsible for, it's definitely 
something for the editors. But maybe LilyPond could be of help here.

Maybe LilyPond could run through only the first stage (i.e. without 
producing graphical or MIDI output) and analyze the score. On that way 
it parses all existing contexts and could maybe determine the positions 
of all music content. It could then output some kind of list 
representation that allows an editor like Frescobaldi to determine the 
locations of all objects inside the requested area in order to take 
action. Maybe this could also take care of noticing open spanners that 
are closed inside the range, so that an editor can also offer solutions 
or ask the user what to do with these.
Of course this is a highly simplified sketch, and there's much that has 
to be considered. But it *could* be an approach.

Urs

> Cheers,
> Kieren.
> ________________________________
>
> Kieren MacMillan, composer
> ‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
> ‣ email: address@hidden