Re: \lyrics, was Re: Vertical spacing of figured bass

[David Wright]

On Sun 05 Nov 2017 at 19:29:27 (+0100), David Kastrup wrote:
> David Wright <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > On Sat 04 Nov 2017 at 02:10:53 (+0100), David Kastrup wrote:
> >> Jérôme Plût <address@hidden> writes:
> >> 
> >> > I tried applying the contents of
> >> > http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/notation/flexible-vertical-spacing-within-systems
> >> > to move the figured bass a bit closer to the staff:
> >> >
> >> > \version "2.19.54"
> >> > \score { { \new StaffGroup <<
> >> >       \new Staff { \clef "F" c d e f }
> >> >   \new Lyrics \with {
> >> >       \override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-relatedstaff-spacing =
> >> >       #'((basic-distance . 1) (stretchability . 0))
> >> >   } \lyrics { "c"4 "d" "e" "f" }
> >> >   \new FiguredBass \with {
> >> >       \override VerticalAxisGroup.nonstaff-nonstaff-spacing =
> >> >       #'((basic-distance . 1))
> >> >   } \figures { <5>4 <5>4 <5> <5> }
> >> >>> } \layout { indent = 0 \cm } 
> >> >
> >> > Yet this stupid figured bass does not move, even if I input a
> >> > ridiculously large value for 'basic-distance.
> >> >
> >> > What is happening?
> >> 
> >> \lyrics is the same as \new Lyrics \lyricmode ... so your own \new
> >> Lyrics is contentless.  Same with \figures and \new FiguredBass
> >> \figuremode ...
> >> 
> >> I find that overriding the settings (both!) in the Lyrics context works
> >> fine.
> >> 
> >> Either use the \...mode constructs or use \lyrics \with { ... } ... and
> >> \figures \with { ... } ... .
> >
> > \lyrics is new to me
> 
> It's very thinly documented since it just confuses people.  As you can
see.

Well it would do if they don't find it in the documentation as
they have to either guess or look for places where it's used
correctly, as opposed to p142 of the LM where it does appear
to be a mistake.

> At one time it was entirely undocumented even I think.

Intentionally?

> > so I thought I'd look it up. It took a while to find it in the NR as
> > it's rather hidden away under §5.4 (and with no index entry).
> 
> Intentionally I think.

That seems ridiculous. Many posts here are greeted with responses
like "Why didn't you look it up." Perhaps the answer lies here.

> > I've yet to figure out the paragraph in changes.pdf starting
> > "\lyricsto and \addLyrics have been harmonized." There seems to be
> > quite a lot in it. (I assume \addLyrics there and on p290 of NR are
> > typos.)
> 
> I just came back from a conference where I had two talks about music
> creation under GNU/Linux.  So if nobody else can be bothered, trigger me
> again in a few days.

I won't bother, thanks.

> > But in the example on p142 of the LM, is that a mistake?
> > Would I be right in thinking that
> > words = \lyrics { the text }
> > is a more expensive construction than
> > words = \lyricmode { the text }
> 
> The former is short for
> 
> words = \new Lyrics \lyricmode { the text }

OK, so it's a mistake.

> > BTW is there a move towards \voice, \staff, \grandstaff, etc?
> 
> I have no idea what you are even talking about here.

I don't have enough background information to know whether the
introduction of "\lyrics" was to improve consistency with its
friends, or just for brevity (popular in the unix world).
Yesterday I was leaning to the latter, in which case one could
imagine contractions like "\new Voice" → "\voice".

However, after stumbling on NR p589, I see that this change
is being, or has been, applied only to mode-specifying commands
so it wouldn't affect the commands alluded to above.

Cheers,
David.