Phil Taylor writes:
>>...the letters can be
>>used for things other than single symbols, e.g.
>>
>> U: I = start crescendo, i = end crescendo
>>in order to start a crescendo hairpin which may extend across several
>>notes, and which is ended when "i" is typed.
>>
>Exactly.
>
Excellent!
>OK! Presumably then a future version of abc2mtex
>
Don't I wish!
>which supported
>redefinable symbols could simply do so in most cases by just substituting
>single letters for one another?
>
I'm not sure I understand the question. Abc2mtex actually does no
substitution at all. It handles these very simple-mindedly. The
way it works is that abc2mtex reads the abc and writes out a file for TeX
to process. When it comes across one of the letters H--Z, say S, in the
abc, it simply writes "\userS" in the output file. The user then redefines
"\userS" to be whatever TeX macro is wanted, and puts the re-definition
where it's accessible (often in an auxiliary file called header.tex).
The macro substitution is all done in the bowels of TeX. This
re-definition is exactly equivalent Barfly's definition in the U: field, I
think. (Example: the abc2mtex user wants a segno, and puts an S in the abc
at the desired place. Then the user re-defines it:
\def\userS{\Segno}
in the header.tex file, (\Segno is the TeX macro for the segno sign) and
there will be a nice big segno sign in the printed music. If I understand
correctly, the Barfly user will write exactly the same abc, except that
there will be an entry in the U: field:
U: S = segno
and the printed result is the same, but this time the substitution is
done in the bowels of Barfly.
Cheers,
John Walsh
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