Re: No R in input! (Proposal for discussion)

[David Kastrup]

Simon Albrecht <address@hidden> writes:

> Am 02.04.2017 um 23:56 schrieb David Kastrup:
>> I have
>> a hard time understanding how one can consider the visuals of
>>
>> { \time 2/4 r4*12 }
>> { \time 2/4 R4*12 }
>>
>> as conveying the same semantics.
>
> Well, to me the semantics are ‘maintain silence for the given
> period’.

That's Midi.  It turns out that the typeset output conveys more
information and in a different manner.

> The first of your examples does have different semantics from the
> second one, because anybody reading it would see a quarter rest and
> lots of empty space, wondering what he should do with it, so I can’t
> imagine a usecase for that actual output.

Scaled rests, like scaled durations, have uses.  And in the course of
tuplets, they are even produced automatically.  Their spacing is
different from a rest with a skip IIRC, possibly also in connection with
text scripts.

> (A gap text, obviously, should be coded with skips.)  I’m sorry if I
> seem to be apodictic, I’m genuinely wondering where the flaw is in
> that idea.

Making previously valid input produce completely different output tends
to take more than "people should have done things the way I think best
anyway" reasoning.

-- 
David Kastrup