[smufl-discuss] Re: Some additions and other suggestions

[dspreadbury]

Apologies for not addressing this list of suggestions sooner, Emil. I have
in fact been working on many of the proposals you suggested since you sent
this email; my answers inline.

> 1.In each range, three subranges could be reserved:
>
> a.For basic symbols
>
> b.For symbols that can be considered as a ligatures or alternates of the

> above
>
> c.At least four codepoints for “private-private” use (like e.g. for
> additional glyph variants or publishers specific markings), that will
> never get occupied by SMuFL characters. I think this will be more
> convenient than a one separate range for all kind of symbols.

I have just addressed this in another reply, but to reiterate: I have
elected to split the PUA into two areas, a "mandatory glyphs" area from
U+E000 to U+F3FF (5120 code points), and an "optional glyphs" area from
U+F400 to U+FFFF (1280 code points). All ligatures, stylistic alternates,
publisher-, developer- or font-specific glyphs should go in that range.

> 2.Creating new ranges for symbols:
>
> a.that are placed on stem
>
> b.that are placed on beam

At the moment, of course, there is a range for pre-composed stems, which
references all of the individual symbols that can be superimposed on
stems, but I have so far elected to keep those symbols that can be
superimposed on stems in the ranges with similar techniques etc. for the
instruments to which they apply.

> 3.I would suggest adding some more initial and ending strokes for
> writing ornaments, as it is the way that some of the ornaments are
> represented in Unicode. Perhaps a systematic approach would be suitable.

I haven't added your additional suggested starting/ending strokes in SMuFL
0.5 but will consider this for a future revision. For what it's worth, at
Joe's suggestion I have moved all glyphs that can be repeated/combined
together to make larger objects (e.g. ornament strokes, trill/gliss.
wiggles, etc.) to a single range, and have added the wavy lines etc. that
you proposed in your previous set of proposed additions. These changes
will be in 0.5.

> 4.Creating a new range for vertical positioning of noteheads in running
> text (16 may be not enough, so I suggest 32)

I'm not sure about this, or the use of further control characters in
general. I haven't ruled out adding this range, but nor have I added it in
0.5.

> 5.In the figured bass range, the name for digit five with slash may be
> misleading. I think the simple names like “Figured bass digit five with
> slash” would be better. I also suggest to add two combining characters
> for alterations: rising stroke and backslash (for diminished
fifth/twelfth).

I have added these suggested combining characters in SMuFL 0.5.

> 6.I suggest changing the name of the range for Gregorian notation by
> adding the word “square”. If this range is meant to be useful for
> scoring applications, I suggest also adding some basic glyphs.

For SMuFL 0.5 I have elected to leave the existing Gregorian notation
range alone. As you know, the range in SMuFL at present simply duplicates
the glyphs that Perry added to the Unicode Musical Symbols range. I am not
opposed to adding a wider range of glyphs in this range, but I think we
would need some expert help to identify the correct set of glyphs to add.

> I suggest also some more glyphs:
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xa2hxhxus1suoz/Smufl%20additions%20130626.pdf

I have added a number of the symbols you have suggested in SMuFL 0.5. The
ones I have chosen not to add at this time are:

- Specific range of duplicate digits for ligated clefs (the existing range
of digits for tuplets can be used instead)
- Small noteheads for grace notes (I'm still considering how best to
handle this requirement)
- Symbols on beams
- Starting/ending strokes for ornaments
- Gregorian notation components

Thanks, though, for all your hard work in putting together these
proposals, and for designing workable glyphs based on Bravura, which make
it considerably easier for me to include those glyphs in the font. I will
also be releasing Bravura 0.2, which will be compliant with SMuFL 0.5, as
soon as possible, and ideally at the same time as SMuFL 0.5.

Daniel

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