John Chambers wrote:

>Yeah; jcabc2ps implements the simple-minded "continued on next
>line" scheme from the new proposed standard.  Here's how it would
>work:
>
>X:1
>T:TEST:Shenei Zeitim
>M:4/4
>K:C
>G|G2G2A4|(FEF) D (A2G) G|\
>[M:4/4] [K:C] c2c2(B2c2)|(f2e2)e2d G|
>w:She-nei zei-tim nich-__ra-tim_ \
>  be-gan na-'ul_ yats-_hi-ru. Le-
>G|G2G2A4|(FEF) D (A2G) G|\
>[M:4/4]\
>[K:C  ]\
>c2c2(B2c2)|(f2e2)e2d G|
>w:She-nei zei-tim nich-__ra-tim_ be-\
>  gan na-'ul_ yats-_hi-ru. Le-

Yes, that works in BarFly too.

>One problem with this scheme, of course, is that \ at the  end  of  a
>comment  appends  the  next  line  to  the  comment.  This is easy to
>understand, but it does mean that it's  difficult  to  have  embedded
>comments  as was done above.  This is one of the reasons why a lot of
>languages have "bracketing" comment delimiters, often in addition  to
>the "to end of line" comments like abc's % comments.

I've several times felt the need for comments which could be embedded
in a line.  Perhaps the !..! (or whatever symbol is currently favourite)
could be used - !%This is a comment!

>Also, note the missing w:  on the continuation lines.  If you include
>the initial w:, it will be taken as the start of a new syllable.

Same in BarFly.

>| In conclusion: if you don't like the \ mechanism, fine: I can't have you
>| change your mind. But the example you provided was wrong.
>
>I wouldn't be so hard on Irwin.  When I see this  sort  of  confusion
>about  how  a mechanism is supposed to work, I find it more useful to
>observe that the mechanism is too complex.  It's common for people to
>design  something  far  too complex for its users, and then say "user
>error" when they misuse it.  This is the common excuse  for  lots  of
>disasters  that  were  actually caused by an unusable design.  Rather
>than feeling smug about how stupid the users  are,  I'd  much  rather
>design something that's simple enough that they will use it right.

(Don't lose heart Irwin, you're doing a great job of withstanding
the flak so far:-)

>This isn't so much a matter of  "right"  and  "wrong";  it's  more  a
>matter  of  where  you  want  to place the blame when it doesn't work
>right, and how you want to fix the problem.
>
>(BTW, it would be better to have an example where the meter  and  key
>really  do  change.  I can't tell from the output whether jcabc2ps is
>correctly handling the "key changes", since failure produces the same
>output as success in this example.)

Yes.  BarFly puts the redundant meter and key signatures in, but of
course K:C is invisible anyway.

Phil Taylor


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