One of the things in Kieren's intro to the Edition Engraver (EE) that resonated
with me was the context paths. His example was something like
`singwithbach.along.Voice.B`, which was supposed to refer to something like
this:
\context Staff = "along" {
\context Voice = "B" {
...
}
}
The ability to refer to contexts this way is a great idea, though IMHO it needs
some work to reduce ambiguity. But the point I came here to make is this: if
an EE using a similar syntax is ever to be a part of LilyPond proper, the
syntax ought to be consistently supported for other LilyPond commands that
refer to contexts. For example,
\context along.Voice.B { ... }
\set along.Voice.B.property = #...
\change Voice = ChoirStaff.A.Staff.B
It would be wise to ask whether there are use cases for any "pronouns" (like
`.` and `..` in file paths, and `this` in C++) to make it possible to root a
search very specifically. The existence of the `descend-only` music property
suggests that there might be. I also think I have a pretty good use case for
finding "the closest enclosing context where a given property is defined," but
I am not now prepared to elaborate.
—
Dan
