The Calls tab

The Calls tab is a table which allows you to define any custom calls which are used in a composition.

To edit any value in the table, simply click on the relevant cell, then type a new value. Multiple cells can be highlighted by clicking and dragging. Alternatively, you can click on a cell, hold Shift, and then click on another cell.

Call Type & Symbol

These fields determine which of a number of standard types the call falls under, and what symbol is used to represent it in the composition's calling.

Complib gives you the flexibility to define calls in whatever way you want. However, most compositions tend to use one of a small number of standard call types. Some of these types (Bob, Single, etc.) are widely used, have commonly accepted meanings, and are often represented with a set of standard symbols. Others are rarer and may have seen a variety of historical uses, or may be wholly modern innovations.

The default behaviour of some call types depend on the default calls of the method(s) currently defined for the composition. However, since there is no need to define any of the default calls explicitly (and in fact Complib will remove any such extraneous definitions), the below examples are included more as a guide as to what each call type "usually" means.

A call symbol can be any lowercase letter [a–z], or a dash (–), with the constraint that all call symbols in a composition must be unique.

The standard call types and their default symbols are:

Bob

Default symbol: –

The simplest, most common type of call. In single-hunt methods and principles, a bob generally replaces a place made at/after the lead- or section-end with another made elsewhere in the row.

Example: Plain Bob, 4ths place bob

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The diagrams below show the leadend of Plain Bob Minor with no call (top) and with a standard "near" bob (bottom). The bob replaces 2nds over the treble with 4ths over the treble.

Example: Double Norwich Court Bob Major, 6ths place bob

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Double Norwich Court Bob Major with no call (top) and with a standard "far" bob (bottom). The bob replaces nths place over the treble with (n–2)'s place over the treble.

Example: Stedman Triples, Stedman bob

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The six-end of Stedman Triples with no call (top) and with a standard "Stedman" bob (bottom). The bob replaces nths place over the six-end with (n–2)'s place over the six-end.

In twin-hunt methods, a bob generally replaces nths place before the lead end with 3rds made before the lead end.

Example: Grandsire Triples, Grandsire bob

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Grandsire Triples with no call and with a standard "Grandsire" bob.

Single

Default symbol: s

The second most common type of call. Singles are the counterparts to bobs, in the sense that they usually involve two extra places made in addition to the one(s) made at a standard bob.

Example: Plain Bob, 4ths place single

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The diagram below shows the leadend of Plain Bob Minor with a standard "near" single. The single replaces 2nds over the treble with 2nds, 3rds and 4ths over the treble.

Example: Double Norwich Court Bob Major, 6ths place single

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Double Norwich Court Bob Major with a standard "far" single. The single replaces nths place over the treble with (n–2)'s, (n–1)'s and nths place over the treble.

Example: Stedman Triples, Stedman single

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The six-end of Stedman Triples with a standard "Stedman" single. The single replaces nths place over the six-end with (n–2)'s, (n–1)'s and nths place over the six-end.

Example: Grandsire Triples, Grandsire single

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Grandsire Triples with a standard "Grandsire" single. Here, 2nds and 3rds are made over the treble at the leadend, in addition to the thirds made before the leadend.

Plain

Default symbol: p

A utility call, used to prevent the pricker from inserting another call at the corresponding position. Plains should only ever be used to help Complib interpret a composition correctly: plain calls are not displayed in the composition's layout.

There are two cases in which the use of plain calls is required.

1. To force the pricker to ignore a calling position, to prevent the next call in the calling from being applied too soon. This quite often happens in compositions which specify calling positions by a number of leads after the course end.

   Example: Grandsire Triples

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   The above composition of Grandsire Triples begins with a single at 1. The next call is at 2 in the following course. However, naïvely putting a bob at 2 in the calling will cause Complib to wrongly insert the call immediately instead of waiting until the next course.

   To prevent this, the composition makes use of a plain call at 2 to force the pricker to wait until the next time the calling position is reached to apply the bob. The plain call is not displayed in the layout.

2. To prevent Complib from interpreting a phantom parthead as a true parthead. Phantom partheads are repeated parthead rows which need to be ignored in multi-extent compositions. In most cases, they are ignored automatically because Complib will not look for a parthead until all calls in a part have been used.

   In the rare instance that a phantom parthead occurs between the last call and the true parthead, a plain call is needed to suppress it. In a few instances, it may be necessary to define a new calling position on the last row of the part.

   Example: Erin Doubles

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   The above composition of Erin Doubles has 6 true partheads: 12345, 13245, 23145, 21345, 31245 and 32145. An Erin six which contains one of these partheads will also contain two of the others, so this composition has a large number of phantom partheads.

   Most of these are ignored, because there are calls remaining in the part. However, the six after the final single at 4 contains two phantom partheads in addition to the true parthead at the six end. The pricker will pick the first of these by default, which is incorrect. To prevent this, a plain call is inserted at 5 in the final course.

   By making a clone of the composition (NB: must be logged in) and examining the Calls and Methods tabs, we can see that a new Lead position of LE has been used to define a plain call at the six end.

   Try deleting the plain at 5, and note the effect it has on the Blue Line display.

Big Bob

Default symbol: x

Used by default to represent:

• Near calls:
  • A 6ths place bob for stages Royal and below;
  • A (n–4)'s place bob at stages above Royal.
• Far calls:
  • A (n–4)'s place bob.

Big Single

Default symbol: none

Notionally a counterpart to the big bob. Has no default behaviour.

Bob Single

Default symbol: b

This rare call type takes its name from those used by John Holt in his landmark 10-part composition of Grandsire Triples. By default, it represents:

• Near calls:
  • 1456 at even stages;
  • 1456n at odd stages.
• Far calls:
  • 1(n–4)(n–3)(n–2) at even stages;
  • (n–4)(n–3)(n–2) at odd stages.

Double

Default symbol: d

Generally used for a call which extends the standard single with two additional places made.

Example: Plain Bob Major with a 123456 double

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Plain Bob Major with a standard double: 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths and 6ths are all made over the treble at the leadend.

By default, represents:

• Near calls:
  • 123456 at even stages;
  • 123456n at odd stages.
• Far calls:
  • 1(n–4)...(n–1)n at even stages;
  • (n–4)...(n–1)n at odd stages.

Extreme

Default symbol: e

By default, represents 125 in Doubles. Has no default behaviour at other stages.

Omit

Default symbol: o

By default, represents 1 in Doubles. Has no default behaviour at other stages.

Trim

Default symbol: t

Used to indicate a call which often (but not always) changes the length of a lead. Usually a trim skips changes within a method's lead, or substitutes some of the method's changes with a shorter sequence. Requires a Changes replaced value to be specified.

Fill

Default symbol: f

Used to indicate a call which often (but not always) changes the length of a lead. Usually a fill inserts extra changes within a lead, or substitutes some of the method's original changes with a longer sequence. Requires a Changes replaced value to be specified.

Jump

Default symbol: none

This call type must be used if the call involves Jump changes and uses Jump place notation.

Special

Default symbol: none

Notation

The place notation of the call. If the call affects multiple changes, the notation will have multiple elements.

Changes replaced

This value is only used with the trim and fill call types, in order to specify how many changes (if any) are to be replaced with the change(s) in the Notation column.

If a lead originally has length L, and a trim or fill call changes that length to M by inserting or substituting a sequence of N changes, then:

Changes replaced = L – M + N

All values in the above equation must be positive. This means that for fill calls, where M ≥ L, the Changes replaced value must be less than or equal to N.

Examples: Fills and trims

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Click on the names of the example compositions below to open them directly in the composition editor so that you can see how the submitter has defined the calls (NB: must be logged in).

Fills

5040 Kent Treble Bob Royal by John Reeves

Trims

5099 Compton Castle Surprise Major by Robert D S Brown

5000 41-Spliced Surprise Minor by Alexander E Holroyd

Lead position name

The unique identifier for a Lead position at which the call can occur. This can be anything you want, so long as it exactly matches a corresponding Methods > Lead position name entry under the Methods tab.

The Lead position name will appear in the composition's layout as part of a custom call definition. However, if the call uses the LE Lead position name (see below), this will be omitted from the layout.

Default Lead positions

Many of the default call types have a default Lead position name which they use. Since they correspond to common calling positions, you may wish to use them even when definining custom calls. The common ones are:

LE

Short for "lead end". Used by default for:

• Near/far/Grandsire bobs and singles;
• Plains;
• Big bobs and big singles;
• Bob singles;
• Doubles and extremes.

This calling position, being by far the most commonly used, will not be explicitly named in the composition's layout as part of the call's definition.

SE

Short for "section end". This is used for Stedman-type bobs and singles by default.

HL

Short for "half lead". Used for trims and fills by default.

Mnemonic

Heading

Only used when defining a custom calling position, or when specifying an observation bell which is not the highest numbered bell.

The heading must be a single uppercase or lowercase letter [A–Z, a–z], or left blank. The heading value is used as a column heading for the corresponding calling position in the composition layout when laid out by courses; the heading is inserted after the call's symbol in the layout when laid out by leads, or when a calling alteration is given.

The heading used should exactly match a calling position heading used under the Calling tab.

Observation mask

Only used when defining a custom calling position, or when specifying an observation bell which is not the highest numbered bell.

An observation mask is a row mask which gives the position of the observation bell after the call is made at the calling position indicated by the Heading value.

Example: 2nd as observation

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In this composition of Yorkshire Surprise Royal, the 2nd is the observation bell: all the calls are made in reference to its position, rather than that of the tenor. To achieve this, observation masks have been specified for all the calling positions used. These can be seen under the Calls tab by opening a clone of the composition (NB: must be logged in):

Each observation mask specifies the position of bell 2 after the call at the corresponding calling position. All other bells are represented using wildcards (x).

Further examples

For more examples of compositions using the Calls tab, see the Examples reference collection. Click on a composition in the collection, then click Clone to duplicate it in the composition editor. Navigating to the Calls tab will give you a peek at how the submitter has defined the calls in their composition.