[fomus-devel] ongoing improvements....

[Mika Kuuskankare]

Hi David,

Sorry about my late response.

On 11.4.2006, at 21.12, David Psenicka wrote:

> I found a few large numbers in some of the slur/text spanner marks  
> (they look more like addresses or indexes)--I'm not sure if that's  
> what you want in there.  Originally fomus was supposed to accept  
> any "level" numbers and sort it all out (so the numbers that go  
> into these marks could actually be treated like IDs for each mark),  
> but I think that creates problems and confusion--

I actually thought these *were* IDs, which I considered to be a good  
idea. I use a similar idea in ENP and when converting to FOMUS I  
simply used the (unique) address of the slur instances (in my  
program), for example, to distinguish between different simultaneous  
slurs. I, for one, think that this id approach should fit the spirit  
of your program rather nicely. After all, FOMUS seems to sort  out  
much more difficult things for the user (such as voice distribution)  
as it is. I guess the main idea is to distinguish between  
"instances". BTW, I tried the v0.1.65 and got no errors but instead  
different results with my bignums and the "small" numbers.

> so now I've changed it so slurs (and any other spanner mark that  
> gets a "level" number) should only use one of several unique  
> numbers (such as 1 & 2 for two levels of slurs).  Within each  
> "level" fomus tries to complete missing start and end marks and  
> other problems it finds, so I think this will be less confusing.

Does the "level" then (being "1" or "2", etc) affect the output of  
the backend, i.e., does it make a given slur with some "level" number  
to be above another with a smaller "level" number? Does this mean  
that you have to start with "1" and do some book keeping on your own?

> The numbers that go with tremolos are in beat values, so when you  
> specified 1/8 (I think you wanted eighth-notes) you got 32nd note  
> tremolos (1/8 of a beat)--so to get the eighth-note tremolos  
> (:tremolo 1/2) is needed (when a quarter note gets the beat).  I  
> apologize, the documentation wasn't really clear on this (among  
> other things...  :) ).  By next update I'll modify the mark to  
> optionally receive a written value--this should be more intuitive &  
> flexible.

That sounds good.

> I wouldn't put anything in the "partids" slot in a timesig object  
> yet (I saw this in the Segovia and maybe one or two others)--that  
> option is there for polymeters which aren't quite implemented yet  
> (it's in the main code but not in the backends yet)--actually in  
> the Segovia parts the partids indicate part 0 which isn't defined-- 
> so the time signatures weren't used at all and the default 4/4 was  
> used

I mistook :id for :partid, sorry about that. I have to read your  
documentation with my eyes open next time :-)

> Specifying :div '(2) for a 2/4 meter tells fomus not to subdivide  
> the measure at all, so it will try to cram everything in the  
> measure into a tuplet (I think I should just make this an error-- 
> this isn't really intended and can only give strange results).

Ok, although you have cases where this is absolute correct, a quarter  
note triplet in 2/4, for example. I am not sure if it is better to  
have strange results or an error, though :-)

BTW, have you ever considered :div being an attribute to voice  
instead of part? For example, in case of 5/8, where the first voice  
is beamed 3 + 2 and the second voice is beamed 2 + 3?


I look forward in bugging you some more with my FOMUS ignorace...

Best regards,

Mika


Mika Kuuskankare
Researcher
Department of Doctoral Studies in Musical Performance and Research
Sibelius Academy

Henkilökohtainen postiosoite/Personal post address
PL 342 - PO Box 342
FIN-00121 Helsinki, FINLAND
Tel: +358 (0)40 5415 233
Skype: mkuuskan