musescore / musescore/MuseScore

Additional multimeasure rest options

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feature request
Dominant language
C++
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Description

Your idea
  • an option to suppress multimeasure rest number ranges on single-bar mm rests and instead show the number normally (or not: however the normal measure number options are set.)
  • two separation values for old-style mm rests: one for 2 symbols and another for three or more.
  • or (alternatively): an option to scale the spacing of old-style mm rest symbols to the width of the mm rest, with a separation value from the barline(s).
Problem to be solved

Currently, a single bar mm rest shows a measure number "range" as a single number inside brackets (if the bracket option is selected). It is centered. This may appear inconsistent, especially if the single bar mm rest displays with a whole rest rather than an H-bracket. It would be nice to have an option to display or not display the measure number normally in this situation.

Many older editions that use old-style mm rest symbols scale their spacing depending on the number of symbols and how wide the mm rest is. Here is an example from a Brahms horn part.

Screen Shot 2024-11-12 at 3 53 12 PM

Compare the spacing of the symbols bar before K (8 bars rest), bar before O (7 bars rest), and 20 bars after P (3 bars rest).

Prior art

I implemented both of these options for Finale in my Multimeasure Rest plugin. To do the spacing, I simply added a 2nd separation option for 3-or-more symbols, which got pretty close to the requirement. A scaling option might get closer, at least to the Brahms edition presented above.

Additional context

This is a revival of the feature request in #24947 that were not fixed with #25199.

Checklist
  • This request follows the guidelines for reporting issues
  • I have verified that this feature request has not been logged before, by searching the issue tracker for similar requests

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First steps

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Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are identified in the issue. Start by locating multimeasure-rest layout and measure-number option handling, then define and implement the selected behavior for single-bar numbering and old-style symbol spacing, with notation examples covering the requested cases.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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