Wel... one of the unwritten rules of music notation for modern music.
It's quite explicitly and deliberately not the editorial convention in scholarly modern-notation editions of Renaissance and earlier music, where ties within the measure are eschewed, resulting in measures which does look precisely like the 12/8 example. Those of us who work a lot in early music are really used to reading highly syncopated music notated without ties. Which is presumably where dglenn's head was at when he came up with that option. :) (Hey, dglenn, you got your period on your score[*]!)
[* I suppose that just something you risk notating mensural music...]
(no subject)
It's quite explicitly and deliberately not the editorial convention in scholarly modern-notation editions of Renaissance and earlier music, where ties within the measure are eschewed, resulting in measures which does look precisely like the 12/8 example. Those of us who work a lot in early music are really used to reading highly syncopated music notated without ties. Which is presumably where
[* I suppose that just something you risk notating mensural music...]