ANNOUNCEMENT - v6.2.0-beta1 released

[Fr. Samuel Springuel]

We've missed the TeX Live 2026 Pretest, so this release will not end up in TeX Live 2026, but there's been a bunch of development over the course of the past year (and especially the last month, hence missing the pretest). You will need to install this locally using the either the installers (MacOS and Windows) or make (MacOS or Linux).

Download link: https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/releases/tag/v6.2.0-beta1

# CHANGELOG
## [6.2.0-beta1] - 2026-02-23
### Fixed
- Fixed a bug that could cause a punctum mora that is supposed to be below the line (`.0`) to appear above the line. This bug was platform-dependent and was observed on a Windows system. See [#1642](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1642).
- Error messages from executable have been cleaned up to be more uniform. See [#1644](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1644).
- NABC neumes are now rendered for syllables with empty GABC/NABC snippets when NABC content is present (e.g. `(|vi|ta)`, `(|vi)`, `(||ta)`, `(g||ta)`). See [#1700](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1700).
- Commentary will now print even if the first syllable of the score has no lyric text. See [#1678](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1678).
- You can now have both nabc neumes and above line text. See [#1559](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/pull/1559).
- Error raised by double blank lines has been fixed. See [#1652](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1652).

### Added
- Added unified visibility controls (`visible`, `invisible`, `phantom`, and `hphantom`). Solves [#1626](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1626).
- Decouple visibility control for NABC and above-lines text from notes. Solves [#1547](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1547).
- Added proper vertical spacing and alignment of score elements in NABC+lyrics-only contexts. Solves [#1694](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1694).
- Added horizontal spacing preservation for NABC neumes, preventing overlap. Solves [#1699](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1699).
- Added overtie/undertie special symbols (`<sp>ut</sp>` for `\greundertie`, `<sp>ot</sp>` for `\greovertie`, and `<sp>dt</sp>` for `\gredoubletie`), and a configurable lyric tying shorthand (`~` for `\GreLyricTie`).
- Added support for the C23 standard (the default in GCC 15). The included build scripts continue to default to GNU89 C.
- Added new option `\gresetlastline{trimmed}`, which sets the last line ragged and also trims the staff lines. See [#1418](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1418).
- Nabc can now appear below the staff in addition (or instead of) above. See [#1645](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1645).

### Changed
- Variable line heights are now computed in one pass instead of two. Per-line adjustments using `\grechangenextscorelinedim` and `\grechangenextscorelinecount` are also done in one pass, but only work on dimensions/counts related to line heights. Mentioned in [#1488](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1488).
- Previously, if a score ended with `Z` (ragged line break) or `z` (justified line break), the appearance of the last line would sometimes depend on `Z` versus `z` and sometimes depend on `\gresetlastline{ragged}` versus `\gresetlastline{justified}`. Now, the appearance of the last line always depends on `\gresetlastline`.
- Fixed a bug introduced in 6.1.0 that caused latexmk not to recognize when a GABC file has changed and needs to be recompiled (issue #1685).
- `spacebeforesigns` and `spaceabovelines` were changed from skips to dimens; that is, they can no longer have a stretch or shrink (`plus` or `minus`). Fixes [#1489](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1489), [#1656](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1656), and [#1695](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1695).
- The meanings of the distances `spaceabovelines` and `abovelinestextheight` were changed to be (hopefully) easier to use and closer to their descriptions in the documentation. Fixes [#1633](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1633) and [#1634](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1634).
- All lengths related to vertical spacing are documented in greater detail in a dedicated section in GregorioRef.pdf. Fixes [#1631](https://github.com/gregorio-project/gregorio/issues/1631).
- We now require LuaTeX version 1.0 (2016) or greater. This enabled some streamlining of the internal code, but user interface is unaffected.
- `\gre@createdim` now takes an additional argument which specifies whether the dim allows a glue (i.e., whether it would be a skip or a dimen). This eliminates the previous strategy of looking up the known glues, speeding up the process of creating all the dims.

### Deprecated
- The count `grefinalpenalty` no longer has any effect and will be removed in a future release.


# UPGRADE
## 6.2

### LuaTeX >= 1.0 required

The minimum required version of LuaTeX is now 1.0 (released in 2016). Attempts to compile documents with older versions of LuaTeX will result in an error.

### `grefinalpenalty`

The count `grefinalpenalty` no longer has any effect and will be removed in a future release.

### Final `Z` and `z`

Forced line breaks (`Z` or `z`) at the very end of a score are discouraged. Please use `\gresetlastline{ragged}` or `\gresetlastline{justified}` instead to set the appearance of the last line.

### `spaceabovelines` and `abovelinestextheight` changed meaning

The meanings of these distances were changed to be (hopefully) easier to use and closer to their descriptions in the documentation. Please see the section "Vertical spacing" in GregorioRef.pdf for more information. Scores that use the default settings and have above-lines text (`<alt>`) will now have slightly more whitespace above the above-lines text. Scores that set either of these two distances explicitly may experience larger changes in whitespace between staves, and should be checked.

### `spaceabovelines` and `spacebeforesigns` changed from skips to dimens

These spaces were changed from skips to dimens; that is, they can no longer have stretch or shrink (`plus` or `minus`). For example, a command `\grechangedim{spacebeforesigns}{0.050 cm plus 0.004 cm minus 0.004 cm}{scalable}` should be changed to `\grechangedim{spacebeforesigns}{0.050 cm}{scalable}`.

- In previous versions, stretch/shrink on `spaceabovelines` was ignored, so removing stretch/shrink will not change the output.
- In previous versions, stretch/shrink on `spacebeforesigns` was causing a double punctum mora to be misaligned, so removing stretch/shrink should improve the output.


✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝
Fr. Samuel, OSB
(R. Padraic Springuel)
St. Anselm’s Abbey
4501 South Dakota Ave, NE
Washington, DC, 20017
202-269-2300
(c) 202-853-7036

PAX ☧ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ




✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝
Fr. Samuel, OSB
(R. Padraic Springuel)
St. Anselm’s Abbey
4501 South Dakota Ave, NE
Washington, DC, 20017
202-269-2300
(c) 202-853-7036

PAX ☧ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ