"natural width" of a measure

[Urs Liska]

Hi,

is there any chance to retrieve the "natural width" of a measure after
typesetting but before the line is stretched to the full line width?

This is a rather long-term question, but it would be terrific if - upon
a compilation - I could retrieve a list of initial widths of each
measure. From this I hope to be able to determine how many concrete
measures fit in a line, so if for example adding some content requires
the current line to be broken earlier I could determine if the next line
would still fit or if that changed break has to continue for subsequent
systems.

So, is there any moment in the compilation process where the natural,
unstretched length of a measure can be calculated? It doesn't have to be
an easily-read property and can involve calculation, but actually the x
position of the barlines would be an easy target - *if* there's this
magic moment in the compilation pipeline ;-)

Thanks for any opinions, info or pointers
Urs


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