Re: [Rosegarden-devel] Notation impressions

[D. M. M. <ros...@gm...>]

On Thursday 04 June 2009, Chris Cannam wrote:

> Well, that's another way of doing it again.

Oh, true.  I sort of swallowed that blurb of reasoning unspoken, so let me 
explain a bit...

>   1. Insert the plain note, then add the dot to it (like writing).  As
> you just observed, this isn't practical with the way Rosegarden works
> now.

The problem with that idea is that it's just not realistic, even though it's 
my "mental ideal" approach.  (This would probably work much better in a pure 
notation editor that interprets note data into MIDI at playback instead of 
storing an actual performance.)  That leaves this...

>   3. Have a row of plain notes, and a modal toggle button on the
> toolbar for the dot (like the accidentals).  So you pick a note, opt
> to make it dotted, and then insert.  This is what I thought you were
> suggesting in your previous post.

...as the suggested most realistic compromise.  That is what I was talking 
about a moment ago, true.  The bit I wrote and at some point edited out for 
brevity was where I reasoned out that this doesn't actually save any effort, 
and actually increases effort for little real benefit, even if it might seem 
more logical to me in use.

I'd rather always go back to the same place to grab a crotchet, and having the 
dotted ones in a different place has always been mildly annoying, *but* the 
mechanics of working this mode toggle would present exactly the kind 
of "having to go somewhere other than where crotchets come from" to affect 
the dot, and it would also require twice as much work to cycle it on and off.  
So after some serious deliberation I've concluded that this...

>   2. Have a row of dotted notes to pick from alongside the row of
> plain notes.  This is how Rosegarden does it now.

...is about the only realistic compromise after all.  An interesting note is 
that you said "alongside" here, and I think this could be the key actually.  
Traditionally the alternative durations are, in fact, stacked on top of their 
cousins, and one is quite far apart from the other.  Rearranging the toolbar 
layout could be just the trick then.

> Maybe that's the thing, my kid is simply too young to have used Finale
> (or more likely in this country Sibelius) at school yet.  But he's old
> enough to be having piano lessons, so he knows what a note is (except
> when it's B# obviously).

Well send him over to my house, and we'll have to fix that B# nonsense 
straight away!

-- 
D. Michael McIntyre