At 3:32 PM 09/15/03, Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
>Even if one initially used "edit lyrics / click assignment", I suspect
>editing the block in a manner that would change the number of syllables in
>the block afterward would cause the same problems I've detailed. For
>editing existing lyrics, "type into score" is much less likely to cause
>bizarre problems not conducive to easy correction, than "edit lyrics" is.
I wonder if this is an engraver-vs-composer issue. I almost never want to
go back and edit lyrics after the fact. I put them in right the first
time. If I'm redoing them, I'll clean them out and start over -- just like
if I entered the wrong notes in a measure, I'd clear the measure out and
enter the correct ones; I wouldn't drag and edit the existing notes around
to turn them into something they're not.
As I mentioned in another post, I rarely add syllables to the Edit Lyrics
window in such a way that it inserts a syllable before the existing lyrics,
and when I do it's only because I intend to have them all shift.
I suppose if I were going back and fiddling with the lyrics frequently, I
would find Type in Score more useful, but that's not how I work. I like
your analogy to Simple and Speedy. Different methods for different users.
Nothing wrong with that.
I still think the answer for making EL and TIS compatible is to add a
function that organizes the data in the lyric pool.
Obviously the software can figure out what syllable is currently assigned
to what note, so it can go through the lyric pool to sort out and clean up
the data without actually altering what syllable appears under any note.
There can be a designated sort order just like you'd do in a database --
something like staff first, then deck, then front to back. An Organize
Lyric Data function would establish one-to-one correspondence between
syllables and notes (so that you don't end up with one syllable assigned to
more than one note, which can lead to unpleasant surprises if you alter one
of them with TIS) and then re-order all the syllables according to the sort
pattern. Any orphaned syllables (those which found there way into the data
pool but are no longer assigned to any note) could be moved to the end of
the list (or perhaps deleted altogether). Along the way, any extraneous
hyphens or spaces that found there way into existence as a result of
roundabout TIS editing would be cleaned out.
There's room for debate over exactly how certain unusual circumstances
ought to be sorted, but it would be easy enough to describe a logical order
for an standard piece. The details of the algorithm don't really matter, so
long as it yields a logical and predictable result in the lyric data and
doesn't change anything on the page. Certain parameters can be made
available to the user as settings so that each user can tailor his order to
his own desires (eg, whether to group the lyrics into separate verses,
etc).
The point of a function like this is for the regular user of TIS who one
day needs to go into EL. He can run the Organize Lyric Data function first,
and then the EL data will be easy to read and understand.
Now, as long as the Organize Lyric Data ("OLD") function exists, it's easy
enough to have an Automatic OLD, analogous to Automatic Update Layout or
Automatic Music Spacing. If Auto OLD is turned on, each time a lyric is
added or deleted, the data automatically gets reordered. The current TIS a
certain amount of this anyway. This would complete the job so that the data
never gets disorganized at all (and, just as important, so that it
*doesn't* rearrange your data if you have OLD turned off).
Auto OLD will be used by routine TIS users, and routine EL users will
probably leave it off. So what happens if you go into the EL window with
Auto OLD turned on? Well, for one thing, if you try sticking a space in
the middle of a syllable, it won't insert a fresh syllable and knock
everything subsequent out of whack. Instead, the original syllable will be
truncated and the rest of the syllable will be bounced to the end of the
list (or deleted, depending on what we defined).
This might confuse the user, who will wonder what's happening. Thus it
would be necessary to add some sort of warning like "You are trying to use
Edit Lyrics with Auto OLD turned on. Would you like to turn it off?" That
sounds annoying, but it's a good thing, because if a TIS user is trying to
insert a syllable into the lyric data, then he *should* get a warning,
because that's precisely the sort of thing that gives unexpected results
and can mess up a file. Instead, when you try to insert a syllable in the
middle of a phrase, it will bounce to the end. You can then click assign it
in the appropriate place in the music, whereupon it immediately finds its
proper position in EL text.
If you really do want to rejigger all the lyrics, just turn Auto OLD off,
fix them up how you like them, and then run OLD again to re-sort according
to your new assignments.
For those who are content with the system exactly how it is, they can
simply never use OLD at all and nothing will have changed. For those who
are happy with TIS but want the lyrics to be in order on the occasions when
they do visit EL, a one-time use of OLD will do the trick. Those who don't
want EL and TIS to be able to yield different results can leave Auto OLD
on, so that the errant hyphens, multiple assignments, and orphaned
syllables can never occur, and they'll get a rejection any time they try to
do something in EL that is non-TIS-compatible.
>That said, the implementation is not perfect; I'd really like to see user
>control of the size and shape of the "edit text" window (and I suspect the
>same window is used both to edit text, and by the lyrics subsytem),
>including independent zoom; I'd also like to see at minimum a search
>function, though providing that with sub-options of "replace" and "global
>replace" would be nice, too. Mark's desire for a built in zoom is not a
>priority of mine, but I can see how it might be useful in some
>circumstances.
I'm not sure what the difference between "built in zoom" and "independent
zoom" is. All I know is that if my lyrics are going to appear on the page
in 9-pt type, the only way I can read them in the Edit Lyrics window is in
9-pt type on my screen, which is way too small. I routinely show the page
view at sizes larger than 100%, why should I be stuck with 100% in the Edit
Lyrics window? It's ridiculous. My standard practice now is to enter all
my lyrics at a larger size and then reduce the whole mass of them after I'm
done typing. That's not particularly onerous, but it's silly that it's
necessary.
--
As long as we're complaining about the lyric system, here's one that hasn't
come up yet.
Am I the only who wrestles with situations where two syllables are too
close for a hyphen to comfortably fit in between, but not close enough to
read nicely without one? Generally, my goal in such a situation is to make
the syllables abut so they appear just as they would if typed solid.
Unfortunately, that's difficult to achieve just by eyeballing. Often, no
hyphen appears on the screen, but it shows up on the page anyway (or it
appears at some screen view % and not others). Other times it looks fine on
the screen, but on the printout I discover the syllables are mashed too
closely.
It seems like there ought to be a little routine that will take two
syllables and adjust them so that they line up just right.
mdl
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