How to hide barlines

[WolfgangDrescher]

How can I hide barlines? Should't this filter work?

shed -e "s/^=[0-9]+/=-/Bg"

or

shed -e "s/^=\w+/=-/Bg"

[craigsapp]

The complication is that you should not specify = in the regular expression. When using the B flag, it is assumed that the first character in the token is =, and it is excluded from the regular expression. So removing the initial barline marker from the regular expressions should work.

The reason why the first character of a barline (or interpretation) cannot be in the regular expression is because of cases like this:

shed -e "s/=10/*/"

That would convert measure 10 into a null interpretation. Maybe someone would want do that, but I won't allow it until there is a good excuse to be able to do it. (note there is a somewhat reasonable case: you can return a barline = which is an implied metrical cycle start into a barline that is purely visual and not necessarily related to the meter: *bar).

If you include a "=", then that would mean you want to match to a final barline, such as == where the first = sign is implied, and you are searching for the second one.

I this this regular expression should work well:

shed -e "s/^([^-]*)$/$1-/B"

This means match to a capture group of any barline content that does not already have an invisible marker on it. Then replace that match with itself ($1 for the first and only capture group in the regular expression), followed by the - sign to make the barline invisible.

I am noticing problems with making a repeat barline invisible, such as =23:!|. I think the | character is being treated as a meta character (but you probably don't have to worry about that case (but I will have to see about fixing it).

[WolfgangDrescher]

Perfect, thank you. I thought I tried without = but obviously I messed something up… 😄️