@node Lists
@unnumberedsubsubsec Lists
-A very common Scheme data structure is the @emph{list}. Formally, a
-list is defined as either the empty list (represented as @code{'()},
-or a pair whose @code{cdr} is a list.
+A very common Scheme data structure is the @emph{list}. Formally,
+a @q{proper} list is defined to be either the empty list with its
+input form @code{'()} and length@tie{}0, or a pair whose
+@code{cdr} in turn is a shorter list.
There are many ways of creating lists. Perhaps the most common is
with the @code{list} procedure:
By default, LilyPond will print these messages to the console along
with all the other messages. To split up these messages and save
-the results of @code{\display@{STUFF@}}, redirect the output to
-a file.
+the results of @code{\display@{STUFF@}}, you can specify an optional
+output port to use:
@example
-lilypond file.ly >display.txt
+@{
+ \displayMusic #(open-output-file "display.txt") @{ c'4\f @}
+@}
@end example
-With a combined bit of Lilypond and Scheme magic, you can actually
-let Lilypond direct just this output to a file of its own:
-
+This will overwrite a previous output file whenever it is called; if you
+need to write more than one expression, you would use a variable for
+your port and reuse it:
@example
@{
- #(with-output-to-file "display.txt"
- (lambda () #@{ \displayMusic @{ c'4\f @} #@}))
+ port = #(open-output-file "display.txt")
+ \displayMusic \port @{ c'4\f @}
+ \displayMusic \port @{ d'4 @}
+ #(close-output-port port)
@}
@end example
+Guile's manual describes ports in detail. Closing the port is actually
+only necessary if you need to read the file before Lilypond finishes; in
+the first example, we did not bother to do so.
A bit of reformatting makes the above information easier to read:
So in our function, we need to clone this expression (so that we have
two notes to build the sequence), add a @code{SlurEvent} to the
@code{'articulations} property of each one, and finally make a
-@code{SequentialMusic} with the two @code{EventChords}. For adding to a
+@code{SequentialMusic} with the two @code{NoteEvent} elements. For adding to a
property, it is useful to know that an unset property is read out as
@code{'()}, the empty list, so no special checks are required before we
put another element at the front of the @code{articulations} property.