Silvain Dupertuis:
> It would be nice that just after saying that «variable names consist of
> alphabetic characters only», one gives the additional information and
> examples with a dot notation (and avoiding strings that can represent a
> note name).
The above quote is a convention only.
I think that the learning manual should not be involved in that,
instead make the change in the notation manual, which the link
following the the qoute above points to.
A possible patch is attached.
Regards,
/Karl Hammar
diff --git a/Documentation/en/notation/input.itely
b/Documentation/en/notation/input.itely
index 8e49b5ccce..42c3a419de 100644
--- a/Documentation/en/notation/input.itely
+++ b/Documentation/en/notation/input.itely
@@ -599,12 +599,20 @@ expressions, wherever they appear.
@item
@cindex variable
-A variable, such as
+A variable or a nested structure of Scheme association lists (last example),
such as
@example
foo = @{ c4 d e d @}
+"Horn 3" = @{ c4 d e d @}
+verse.1 = @{ c4 d e d @}
+@end example
+
+This can be used later on in the file by prepending it with a backslash
+@example
+\foo
+\"Horn 3"
+\verse.1
@end example
-This can be used later on in the file by entering @code{\foo}.
The name of a variable should not contain (ASCII) numbers,
multiple underscores, multiple dashes or space characters.
All other characters Unicode provides are allowed, for example
@@ -619,6 +627,15 @@ and double quotation marks need to be escaped with
backslashes (not that you actually should use them).
Examples: @code{"foo bar"}, @code{"a-b-c"}, @code{"Horn 3"}.
+Nested alists is a legal variable name followed by a one or more sets of a dot
and a key.
+In @code{mus.violin.1 = @{ a1 @}} we have
+ the variable @code{mus} which has a alist with
+a key @code{violin}, which have a key @code{1} which is assigned the value
@code{@{ a1 @}}.
+
+Note, no variable name nor key are allowed to be a note name,
+enclose thoose in double quotation marks or change the offending name or key.
+In @code{"1.2"."3.4".5} the variable name is @code{"1.2"} and the keys are
@code{"3.4"} and @code{5}.
+
@end itemize
The following example shows three things that may be entered at
