Pocket Sax spelling and abbreviations inconsistent with other occurrences
I have a number of questions / concerns (picked up while translating the latest instrument additions):
1 Usage of dash in instrument name, Pocket-Sax
According to
www.xaphoon.com & en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xaphoon
the instrument name is without a dash, e.g. Xaphoon Pocket Sax
Googling for pocket-sax only returns pocket sax without space
Suggestion: Pocket Sax
2 Convention to specify the key
Current: Pocket-Sax G
Comment
https://www.xaphoon.com/products mentions various instruments "in C", "in B Flat", "in D". E.g. key without "in" does not seem to be a thing specific to this instrument.
The two common formulations I have seen (applied to this instrument) are (with my correction from item 1 included)
* Pocket Sax in G
* G Pocket Sax (could make abbreviations cumbersome)
Suggestion: Use the "in G" convention
3 Sx abbreviation is inconsistent with other Sax abbreviations
P.-Sx. G (abbreviation for "Pocket-Sax G")
Comment: all other Saxophone variants are abbreviated to "Sax." Space cannot be a concern since there are longer abbreviations with Sax and others, and Sx is just saving a single character.
Recommendation P. Sax. G (no dash but a space since they are 2 words, Sax written out,)
(based on for example "Piccolo Trumpet in B♭"abbreviated to "P.tpt. B♭" )
Comments
If all other saxes are abbreviated as "Sax." without key, then why having a key for abreviated Pocket Saxes? And to avoid confusion with Piccolo, maybe use "Poc. Sax."?
And "P.tpt. B♭" should become "P. Tpt. B♭", space and upper case T
In reply to If all other saxes are… by Jojo-Schmitz
Other saxes are identifiable just by their pitch range, like alto sax, tenor sax, etc. But seems like pocket saxes aren't like this.
I would suggest putting the G in front, that's what we do with clarinets, trumpets, horns, etc. So G Poc. Sax.
In reply to Other saxes are identifiable… by Howard-C
"I would suggest putting the G in front, that's what we do with clarinets, trumpets, horns, etc. So G Poc. Sax."
I recommend against this for the following reasons:
a) External references use " $INSTRUMENT in $KEY convention
www.xaphoon.com & en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xaphoon
b) It makes the other keys less discoverable if you put them in front, and browse without a filter. The following has all 4 instruments below each other
Pocket Sax in B♭
Pocket Sax in C
Pocket Sax in D
Pocket Sax in G
vs having "B♭Pocket Sax" with all the other B♭ instruments.
c) Clarinet uses $KEY $INSTRUMENT. Trumpet, Horn use $INSTRUMENT in $KEY (there are 20+ instances of those in Transifex), so the $KEY $INSTRUMENT convention is not universal.
d) I know this is subjective, but $INSTRUMENT in $KEY feels more natural to me.
The only reason I can thing of using $KEY $INSTRUMENT is that it is 3 chars shorter than $INSTRUMENT in $KEY. If anyone has any arguments for $KEY $INSTRUMENT I would love to hear them.
In reply to "I would suggest putting the… by Riaan van Niekerk
Yes, I think instrument in key is better. That has always been my opinion, actually. It was just the instrument key (with no "in") format that troubled me. So either change it to key instrument or instrument in key.
In reply to If all other saxes are… by Jojo-Schmitz
"If all other saxes are abbreviated as "Sax." without key, then why having a key for abreviated Pocket Saxes? And to avoid confusion with Piccolo, maybe use "Poc. Sax."?"
No, because they are not standardised around voices (Alto Sax is Eb, Tenor Sax is Bb), you need the key. They are similar to Tin Whistle in that regard.
I fully agree with the suggestion:
'P.tpt. B♭" should become "P. Tpt. B♭"'. There is probably quite a bit of cleanup that needs to happen.
I struggled to find Pocket Trumpet's abbreviation. Just found it. It is "Pkt. Tpt.". Based on this, I would recommend abbreviating "Pocket Sax" as "Pkt. Sax.", to distinguish from any possible confusion around P. being the abbreviation for Piccolo. (unless we decide to change the abbreviation for Pocket to "Poc." (like Jojo suggested) for both Trumpet and Sax), but I prefer "Pkt." (I am from the "throw away the vowels" school of abbreviation).
In reply to No, because they are not… by Riaan van Niekerk
No, "Pkt." is fine, but "Sax." should loose the dot, as it isn't abbreviated
In reply to No, "Pkt." is fine by Jojo-Schmitz
Agreed.
In reply to No, "Pkt." is fine by Jojo-Schmitz
It is, the full name is "saxophone". "Pocket Sax" is already an abbreviation (or it isn't?).
In reply to It is, the full name is … by Howard-C
Not for xaphoon. Long name is "Pocket Sax", not "Pocket Sax."
In reply to If all other saxes are… by Jojo-Schmitz
And "P.tpt. B♭" should become "P. Tpt. B♭", space and upper case T
Had a look at this again. The English is correct
P. Tpt. B♭
I somehow managed to copy the above from the Afrikaans translation
P.tpt. B♭
(which happens to not have a space and lower-case t)
Mystery solved
Thanks guys. I have enough info to do the PR. If we want to tweak it further, we can do so on the PR discussion thread.
Pull Request: Pocket Sax improvements #5622
@Riaan: I still object to putting the key after instrument name in the short name. This is not we're doing even with horns, which have Horn in key for long names and have key Hn. for short names.
In reply to @Riaan: I misunderstood. I… by Howard-C
Seems fix in the PR now
In reply to @Riaan: I misunderstood. I… by Howard-C
Thanks @Howard-C , I see and agree with your point of putting the key in front of the instrument in the case of abbreviations. Have updated the PR.
Not sure what happened with the duplicate.
Jojo - I did a 'git commit -a -m "Pocket Sax improvements"' ; not sure if I had to change the msg or do something different. Glad it looks ok now.
In reply to Thanks @Howard-C , I see and… by Riaan van Niekerk
So you added a 2nd commit. Now need to squash them