Responding back to the list. > What if, while composing, you add measure numbers as comments BUT, as in the > ancient BASIC programming language you count by 10 (or 100)?
Funnily enough I too thought about those old BASIC days and line numbering. I hadn't thought through it as much though. I can see where after using a search and replace for inserting measures in multiple files that an external script could be run to renumber the measures in all of the files. To make it easy you need to have some kind of set syntax for the comments. Or this could be built into the LilyPond mode you're using for your editor. I like it, there might be something to this approach. On Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 1:32 PM Kevin Cole <dc.l...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi, > > A silly thought from someone who started playing with computers in 1972 in > high school but has never learned Scheme -- though I made my living as a > computer programmer for 43 years: > > What if, while composing, you add measure numbers as comments BUT, as in the > ancient BASIC programming language you count by 10 (or 100)? In BASIC, this > would allow you to create a new line numbered 15 between an existing 10 and > 20 and the BASIC interpreter would automatically sort the instructions into > the correct order. > > While LilyPond doesn't do such things natively, it might be possible for a > Scheme wizard to figure things out. Maybe the comment would need to include > a part number as well as a measure number... And, of course, like BASIC you > would probably want a RENUMBER "command" to turn 10, 15, 20... 1000 into 10, > 20, 30... 1010, which would allow you to once again add up to nine measures > betwixt and between any two measures. > > As I say, probably a silly thought, but occasionally I make a feeble attempt > at providing answers rather than merely asking questions. > > DISCLAIMER: I'm not much of a musician and not much of a LilyPond expert. > Someone else is likely to come up with something much more clever. But, as a > last resort, the above might be something to think about. (I have struggled > and failed to learn to read music, and have mostly given up. I play flute by > ear; mostly folk and rock. I've used LilyPond to transcribe existing music > from paper to computer, and then generate a MIDI file so that I can get the > basic tune in my head when I cannot find a decent recording of a tune.) >
