>> Just to be sure: the beat signatures for
>> ```
>> \compoundMeter #'((2 8) (3 8))
>> ```
>> and
>> ```
>> \time 2/3 5/8
>> ```
>> are (technically) different, right?
>
> I'm assuming that the latter is a typo for \time 2,3 5/8.
Yes, sorry.
> As I understand it, they are not necessarily the same, though there
> are possibly overlapping use cases.
Interesting. I would say it's *exactly* the same, and I can't imagine
that anyone considers
```
2 + 3
5
```
and
```
2 3
+
5 5
```
as two different things: In both cases there are five beats per
(LilyPond) measure, and the beam pattern is 2 + 3. Any additional bar
lines must be inserted manually.
Can you give a counterexample?
Note that there also exists
```
2 3
5 5
```
(which is according to Gould the same as
```
2 3
-
5 5
```
but I've never seen the latter, only the former) to indicate a
probably irregular sequence of 2/8 and 3/8 bars (i.e., we don't have
five beats per measure, but either 2 or 3).
Werner
