Re: many users don't know about \shape

[Janek Warchoł]

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.

>> Well, to look from a different perspective: if there were any pieces i
>> had engraved without using \shape (since it was added to LilyPond),
>> they most probably didn't contain any slurs at all.
>
> Or the post processing would have been done using inkscape or some
> similar tool...  At any rate, \shape is no substitute to fixing
> LilyPond's typesetting of slurs.

Well, as far as i know, fixing slur formatting is a very complicated
problem, probably of a similar scope as skylines.  It would take an
experienced programmer (i.e. not me) a couple of months to fix.  And
we don't have many experienced programmers available.  So, while i'd
*love* to see slur formatting fixed, i don't expect it will happen in
less than 5 years from now.

> It's a stop-gap measure tied into a
> particular version of LilyPond and loosely tied into a particular
> version of a score.  Which may sometimes cause less work than fixups
> firmly tied into a particular printing of the score (which Inkscape
> touchup work is).

>From my experience \shape adjustments require little maintenance (if
introduced at appropriate moment, i.e. when line breaking is mostly
set).
I haven't tried using inkscape for touchups, but as far as i can see
it would be much more work than \shape.


2013/5/11 Urs Liska <address@hidden>:
> One characteristic of the songs is that they have very complex piano parts
> that are a real challenge for LilyPond and Janek ;-)
> But in the end the performance of both is very convincing, and I'm really
> looking forward to having the printed copies finally!

thanks ;-)

best,
JAnek