Re: why Kieren is a \relative evangelist [was “Re: Nested transposition"]

[Vaughan McAlley]

On Sun, 14 Mar 2021 at 23:54, Kieren MacMillan
<kieren_macmillan@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> 3. The *single* serious argument against absolute music — that it requires 
> extra typing [of apostrophes and commas] — is essentially eliminated by using 
> an IDE like Frescobaldi: using MIDI input means I avoid typing note code 
> (including octavation symbols) almost entirely, and the transposition 
> functions let me instantaneously re-octavate large sections of code if that’s 
> ever required (which it basically never is). I believe we should be 
> encouraging users to use tools like Frescobaldi — because I believe their 
> coding lives would be made easier in *so* many ways — and the “crutch” of 
> \relative means there’s less incentive to do so in the early stages of the 
> learning curve (which is exactly when habits, good or bad, tend to be formed).

Using variables for pieces longer than two bars is probably more
crucial than teaching beginners the intricacies of using \transpose
inline.

I’ve been using MIDI for years and still use \relative. I mostly work
with vocal music and find it easier to read, and to me, propagating an
octave error to the end of the piece is a feature rather than a bug.
Frescobaldi happily processes \relative music as easily as it does
\absolute music.

If I sent a score to Kieran, the first thing he would spend 20 seconds
converting it to \absolute in Frescobaldi :-)

Vaughan