Text styles in the 3.0-dev nightlies

• Mar 31, 2017 - 11:51

3edf804 / Win 7

There doesn't appear to be any "Edit text styles" dialog in the 3.0-dev nightlies. How do you create custom text styles?

Comments

• Apr 23, 2017 - 23:28

As I already said in a reply to the thread you quote and I am repeating here, as this seems to me a quite important issue, I see this decision to scrape the text styles as a very backward step, toward a much more clumsy, slow and error prone way of working.

Styles are (were?) a widely used way to ensure stylistic consistency across elements and across files (in MuseScore case, across score elements and across scores).

The primary function of the inspector is the opposite: to allows diversity between individual elements. Using it to achieve stylistic consistency is time consuming and very very error prone; it makes little sense to me and, as I said, seems a big step backward.

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• Apr 24, 2017 - 12:38

I'm focusing on MuseScore 2.1 right now. But let me answer because I don't want FUD to spread...

First, I totally agree with what Miwarre said here and in the other thread. We need a way to "ensure stylistic consistency across different elements and different files" and a way to change individual elements. I'm pretty sure Werner think the same, but I will let him chime in if necessary.

But, I just don't understand all this fuzz... And not, it's not a "compelling case", it is misunderstanding...
MuseScore 3 is in flux, it's development is in the open. We had the same discussion with MuseScore 2, X years ago, and see the state of MuseScore 2 right now. Pretty good no?
Sometimes we need to remove visible features in order to reimplement them better in the core and expose them again better. How is that a problem? I read in another post that MuseScore master is getting worse, with more and more bugs. Well, yes, same issue here.
I'm seriously considering stopping the nightly builds for MuseScore master if we cannot all understand this software development truth: Sometimes, it's needed to break little things in order to rebuild them on stronger foundations...

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• Apr 24, 2017 - 13:46

I think discussions like this are good during the earlier development phase of a new version of MuseScore. A multitude of voices may just add an idea that you or Werner did not previously think of. I don't see how it could in any way be considered bad. People test these nighties to see what kind of changes are in the works, and changes are necessary to keep MuseScore a top of the line quality product, which it already is. Werner is working to improve MuseScore and comments from people who are interested in improving it can only be beneficial to the final product.

It is true that we do not know the final goals involved in the breaking and remaking of specific parts of the program. Perhaps Werner doesn't even know where he will end up though he must have an idea of where he is going or he would never have made the changes he has so far. It is possible that discussions such as these can help to make a clearer picture of the final product.

It has been mentioned elsewhere that nearly all speed menu properties are going to end up the inspector and this is a good thing. All properties of each individual element should be able to be set through the inspector, be it through direct controls as with notes is version 2 or a button that brings up a dialog as with bends and fretboard diagrams. It seems that is what he is currently working toward from the discussion I am seeing here. I look forward to seeing the final version 3 product and perhaps will be able to have some input to make it better.

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• Apr 25, 2017 - 11:24

I'm seriously considering stopping the nightly builds for MuseScore master if we cannot all understand this software development truth: Sometimes, it's needed to break little things in order to rebuild them on stronger foundations...

O.K. Maybe we misunderstand something. Everything can be done with an answer :"No you misunderstand, Styles still here. Technically, it does not appear for right-now"

Why do you need (or think) to stop nightly builds?
Testers are helping you. They are also helping themselves. They are discussing with you what they see strange or weak. They make an effort to move things forward.

Those who are not software developers but who comment here, also think that they contribute to the development of software. How good is it to stop the Nightlys (and throw them out)? If no one commented on the forum then "3.0" would be better?

Note: These are my thoughts. It could be wrong. It only reflects the reaction of a forum member. You also do not have to answer them. Everything that appears to be written to you is normally written in general. It does not contain insults. I apologize already if there are places that look like that. I would like to reiterate that: all these are written in good faith.

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• Apr 26, 2017 - 09:56

Quoting Werner from https://musescore.org/en/node/164101 : "Text styles are gone but will be come back as more generic substyles or subtypes for some element types.".

This seems to indicate rather clearly the general direction toward which the code is going: some styling will be re-enacted in some elements, chances are they will not usable across element types and it is not clear whether custom styles (sub-types?) will be available at all.

It is not a "little thing", to quote lasconic, it is a major feature, one of the most important features of a programme to "Create, play and print beautiful sheet music" and it does not seem the direction is "to rebuild them on stronger foundations"; rather, to reduce or marginalise them.

So, I still hope that the final result will fulfil the two goals I was describing here , but these are still hopes...

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