musescore / musescore/MuseScore

Add three more bracket styles for noteheads, in addition to parentheses

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C++
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Description

Your idea

Add to the Noteheads palette, in addition to the existing "Add parentheses to element":

  • [Square brackets]
  • <Angle brackets>
  • {Curly braces}

Behavior should be the same as parentheses, just with a distinct appearance. (These are the American names for them, obviously the labels should be localized.)

Problem to be solved

Handbell notation frequently marks certain notes as optional, using all four of these parentheses/bracket styles. Different handbell choirs will have different ranges of notes available (a three-octave choir has C4-C7, a five-octave choir has C3-C8, etc.), and music is often written to accommodate multiple sizes of choirs. Smaller choirs will omit the notes they don't have in their range, but should also omit specific notes in their range as marked. Text somewhere will explain who should omit which bracket types.

Here's an example I've been working on, but the square bracket and angle bracket symbols I'm using here are poorly designed for this and hard to read (and of course I had to position everything manually):

Image
Prior art

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Additional context

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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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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in the Noteheads palette by locating the existing “Add parentheses to element” option and tracing how its appearance and localized label are defined. Add square brackets, angle brackets, and curly braces with matching behavior and distinct appearances, then verify that all four options render correctly and their labels can be localized.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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