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## Macros

### Simple Macros (without parameters)

Macros can be defined to avoid retyping or to give mnemonic names to things. A macro is defined with the following syntax:

    define  macro_name macro_text @

The macro_name consists of one or more upper case letters, digits, and underscores, with the first character being a letter. The macro_text can be any text. It can be any length from empty to many pages. The "@" terminates the macro. A literal "@" can be placed in the macro_text by preceding it with a backslash. If you want a literal backslash in the macro_text, it also must be preceded by a backslash.

A macro is called by stating the macro_name in the input. The macro_name is replaced by the macro_text. A macro can be defined at any point in the input. It can be used as often as desired any time after it has been defined. A given macro_name can be redefined as many times as desired, with each new definition overwriting the previous definition.

As an example, suppose you are printing an orchestral score, and the oboe part happens to be on staff 5. Rather than having to remember which staff it is, you could define a macro:

    define OBOE 5: @

Not only is the name easier to remember than a number, but if you later decide to move the oboe part to a different place in the score, only the macro definition and perhaps a few other things would have to be changed.

Another common use of macros might be if a musical motif occurs several times. You could define a macro for the motive:

    define SCALE 8c;d;e;f;g;a;b;c+; @

then do something like:

    OBOE SCALE

It is possible to remove the definition of a macro using the "undef" statement:

    undef OBOE

It is possible to have parts of the input skipped over depending on whether certain macros are defined or not. This is done using "ifdef," "else," and "endif." The keyword "ifdef" is followed by a macro name. If a macro by that name is currently defined, Mup will continue reading and processing input normally. If it finds a matching "else," it will skip over input until the matching "endif." If the macro is not currently defined, Mup will skip over the input until it finds a matching "else" or "endif." There is also an "ifndef" command that uses the opposite logic: it will read the input up to the "else" or "endif" only if the macro is NOT defined.

The ifdefs can be sprinkled between other items in the input; they need not be on separate lines. They can be nested. Examples:

    // make last c an octave higher if macro "FRED" is defined
    1: c;e;g;c ifdef FRED + endif;

    ifdef PIANO
        staff 1 visible=n
    else
        ifdef VIOLIN
            staff 2 visible=n
            staff 3 visible=n
        endif
    endif

Macros can also be set from the command line using the -D option. Only ordinary macros can be defined using the -D option, not macros with parameters.

Macro text cannot begin or end in the middle of a token, like a keyword or a number or a string. Usually it will be clear what things are tokens; generally tokens end where you are allowed to have white space. But there are a few obscure cases. For historical reasons that are now hard to change, "dashed tie" or "dashed slur" or the per-note versions of "dashed ~" and " dashed <>" (or the "dotted" counterparts or any of these) are treated as a single token. That means you can't define one macro for "dashed" and another for "tie" and put them together and have that be recognized.

### Macros with parameters

Macros defined within Mup input can be defined to have "parameters." This may be useful when you have something that is repeated with small variations. When defining a macro with parameters, the macro name must be followed immediately by a ( with no space between the end of the name and the parenthesis. The opening parenthesis is followed by one or more parameter names, separated by commas, and ending with a close parenthesis. Parameter names have the same rules as macro names: they consist of upper case letters, numbers, and underscores, starting with an upper case letter. The parameter names can then appear in the text of the macro definition where you want a value to be substituted.

As an example, suppose you are doing a score with staffs 1 through 4 for vocal parts, and staffs 5 and 6 for a piano accompaniment, and that you frequently want to mark a dymanics change at the same point in time below each of the vocal scores and between the two piano staffs. You could typically do this with something like:

    boldital below 1-4: 1 "ff";
    boldital between 5&6: 1 "ff";

but if you needed to do this lots of times, it could get tedious. So let's define a macro with parameters:

    define DYN( COUNT, VOLUME )
    boldital below 1-4: COUNT VOLUME;
    boldital between 5&6: COUNT VOLUME;
    @

This macro has two parameters, which have been given the names COUNT and VOLUME. When you call the macro, you will give them values. For example,

    DYN(1,"ff")

would give a VOLUME of "ff" at COUNT 1, whereas

    DYN(3.5,"mp")

would give a VOLUME of "mp" at COUNT 3.5.

When calling a macro with parameters, the values to give the parameters are given inside parentheses. The values are separated by commas. The values in the parentheses are copied exactly as they are, including any spaces, newlines, macro names, etc. There are only a few exceptions to this: you can include a comma, closing parenthesis, or backslash as part of a parameter value by preceding it with a backslash, and a backslash followed by a newline in a parameter value will be discarded. Thus a macro call of

    MAC(\\\,\))

has one parameter, the text of which is 3 characters long: a backslash, comma, and closing parenthesis. If you backslash other characters they will be copied without the backslash, but doing this on anything other than a double quote will produce a warning, because it seems unlikely the backslash was really needed.

If in a macro definition a parameter is used inside backticks, as in `NAME`, the value of the parameter will be placed inside double quotes. Thus, another way to do the example above would be:

    define DYN( COUNT, VOLUME )
    boldital below 1-4: COUNT `VOLUME`;
    boldital between 5&6: COUNT `VOLUME`;
    @

    DYN(1,ff)
    DYN(3.5,mp)

Conceptually, when the macro is expanded, the backticks are replaced by double quote marks, but in addition, any double quote mark found in the value being passed to the parameter will have a backslash inserted before it, and any backslash that occurs within double quotes in the value will also have a backslash inserted before it. Thus, for example:

    // If we define a macro like this:
    define QUOTED(X) `X` @

    // then for input    value passed is    `X` would be    which would print as

    print QUOTED(hello)       hello          "hello"          hello
    print QUOTED("hello")     "hello"        "\"hello\""      "hello"
    print QUOTED(\\n)         \n             "\n"             a literal newline
    print QUOTED("\\n")       "\n"           "\"\\n\""        "\n"

Sometimes it can be a little tricky to get the number of backslashes right, or other details like that. The -E Mup command line option shows how macros will expand, which may help you figure out what to do.

Let's look at an example of much more complicated use of macros. This example demostrates the use of arithmetic functions described in the section on location tags. We will draw a line with an arrow between notes on two different staffs. While it may be possible to write the expressions directly, the result would be very hard to read and understand, so using macros to build up the pieces of the expression can be very helpful.

    define HEAD_LENGTH             5 @
    define HEAD_WIDTH              3 @
    define ANGLE(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)      atan2((Y2) - (Y1), (X2) - (X1)) @
    define COS(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)        cos(ANGLE(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define SIN(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)        sin(ANGLE(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define HEAD_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)     (HEAD_LENGTH * COS(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define HEAD_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)     (HEAD_LENGTH * SIN(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define HB_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)       ((X2) - HEAD_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define HB_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)       ((Y2) - HEAD_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define THICK_LEN               (HEAD_WIDTH / 2) @
    define THICK_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)    (THICK_LEN * SIN(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define THICK_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)    (THICK_LEN * COS(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define FEATH_UP_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) (HB_X(X1,X2,Y1,Y2) - THICK_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define FEATH_UP_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) (HB_Y(X1,X2,Y1,Y2) + THICK_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define FEATH_DN_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) (HB_X(X1,X2,Y1,Y2) + THICK_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define FEATH_DN_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) (HB_Y(X1,X2,Y1,Y2) - THICK_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)) @
    define ARROW(X1,Y1,X2,Y2)
      medium line (X1, Y1) to (X2, Y2)
      medium line (X2, Y2) to (FEATH_UP_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2), FEATH_UP_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2))
        medium line (X2, Y2) to (FEATH_DN_X(X1,Y1,X2,Y2), FEATH_DN_Y(X1,Y1,X2,Y2))
    @

    score
    	staffs = 2
    staff 2
    	clef = bass
    music
    	1: c =h; r; 2;
    	2: r; g =k; e; g;
    	bar

    ARROW(h.x + 2, h.y - 1, k.x - 2, k.y + 1)

### Saving and restoring macros

You can take a snapshot of all your current macro definitions by using the savemacros command, and then restore that set of definitions later using the restoremacros command. These are both followed by a quoted string, which is a name you give to the saved definitions. This might be useful if, for example, you had a multi-movement piece, and wanted to use one set of macros on the first and third movements, but a completely different set on the second movement. You could save the macro state at the very beginning under one name, and after the first movement under a different name. Before the second movement, you could restore to the original state with no macros defined, and define your second set. Before the third movement, you could restore the macros as they had been at the end of the first movement.

Another possible use would be if you have several standalone files, each containing a complete song, and you want to "include" those files in a another file. By putting a save/restore around each include, you can prevent any macro definitions in one file from interacting with those from another file.

Here is a very simple example, using single measures rather than a whole movement or song.

    // Define one "global" macro that will stay around,
    // by defining it before doing any savemacros.
    define ONE_MEAS
    score
    	BSTYLE
    music
    1: 8c;;e;;A 2g;
    bar
    @

    // Save just that one macro as the "default."
    savemacros "default"

    // Now define a couple other macros and save the macros.
    define BSTYLE beamstyle=2,2 @
    define A [with >] @
    // Note that the name can be any arbitrary text string.
    savemacros "2,2 >"

    // Restore the default setting and set macros
    // with the same names to different values.
    restoremacros "default"
    define BSTYLE beamstyle=4,4,4,4 @
    define A [with ^] @
    savemacros "4,4,4,4 ^"

    // Now use the "global" macro with each saved macro state.
    restoremacros "2,2 >"
    ONE_MEAS
    restoremacros "4,4,4,4 ^"
    ONE_MEAS

If you do another savemacros using the same name as you had already used, the old state is forgotten and replaced with the new.

Often, though not always, you may want to use saveparms/restoreparms at the same places as you use savemacros/restoremacros.

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