John Chambers wrote: >Phil Taylor writes: >| >| >2. L=1/4 and [FG/]G , what beat is the second 'G' on? 2 or and-of-one? >| >| Undefined, I'm afraid. >| >| MusicXML has an interesting construct to deal with this kind of situation. >| The <backup> and <forward> tags have the effect of moving the time point, >| so you can use <backup> to go back to the start of a measure in order to >| add an extra layer of notes. This means that you can deal with temporary >| voices which appear and disappear in the course of a piece. >| >| Maybe we need something similar in abc? > >I sorta recall reading about just such a feature in >abc2mtex, with a comment that it probably wouldn't work >with other abc programs. I've never read about anyone else >ever implementing it. > >Now what was that syntax? ...
I don't remember that. Anybody know? Otherwise let's think about how we might implement it. Perhaps it's time to make use of one of the few remaining precious ascii symbols like $ or &. We only need one symbol for <backup> since <forward> is an invisible rest, and x will do fine. Then again, none of the currently-unused symbols have the necessary negative connotations. < would be the obvious choice if it were not already in use. How about using the invisible rest with a negative number following: x-4 means backup four default note lengths x- means backup one default note length x-/ means backup half a def note and so on. So Aaron's original example ( L=1/4 and [FG/]G ) could be written as F x- G/ x/ A (the A when after the F ends) or F x- G/ A3 (the A starts when the G ends) Phil Taylor To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
