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3 Translation of GIT committish: FILL-IN-HEAD-COMMITTISH
5 When revising a translation, copy the HEAD committish of the
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12 @node implementing-typography
15 @unnumberedsec Implementing typography
17 How do we go about implementing typography? Answering the "music
18 notation" problem left us with a bunch of graphic objects
19 representing note heads, the staff, stems, etc.
21 If craftsmen need over ten years to become true masters, how could we
22 simple hackers ever write a program to take over their jobs?
24 The answer is: we cannot! Since typography relies on human judgement
25 of appearance, people cannot be replaced. However, much of their dull
26 work can be automated: if LilyPond solves most of the common
27 situations correctly, then this will be a huge improvement over
28 existing software. The remaining cases can be tuned by hand.
29 Over the course of years, the software can be refined to do
30 more and more automatically, so manual overrides are necessary less
33 How do we go about building such a system? When we started, we wrote
34 the program in C++. Essentially, this means that the program
35 functionality is set in stone by us developers. That proved to be
40 If things must be tuned by hand, then the user must access to the
41 formatting engine. Hence, rules and settings cannot be fixed at
42 compile time, but they must be accessible at run-time.
46 Engraving is a matter of visual judgement, and hence it is a
47 matter of taste. As knowledgeable as we are, users can disagree with
48 our personal decision. Therefore, the definitions of typographical
49 style must also be accessible to the user.
53 Finally, we continually refine the formatting algorithms, so we
54 need a flexible approach to rules. The C++ language forces a certain
55 method of grouping rules that does not match how music notation works.
60 Clearly, there is a need for a flexible architecture. The architecture
61 should encompass formatting rules, typographical style and individual
64 @divClass{float-right}
65 Next: @ref{formatting-architecture,Program architecture,
66 your flexible friend}: tuning, tweaking and developing typography