This would seem like a good time to put up an argument for Gregorian Chant notation in abc. This is already implemented in BarFly, and in Melody Assistant, so it passes the test of being implemented in two programs.
It's a specialised area of music, and probably most developers won't want to implement it, but as it stands it involves very little extension to abc 1.6, and programs which cannot draw square notes or group them into neumes can simply display a good approximation in standard notation. I won't describe the whole thing here, but there's a full description at: <http://www.barfly.dial.pipex.com/bfgregorian.html> To be compatible, programs should: (1) Permit M: none. (It's in the 2.0 standard anyway) (2) Ignore the Gregorian Clefs (There are eight of them named Doh1..Doh4 and Fa1..Fa4). (3) Not object to a single note in slur brackets e.g. (a) (Just ignore the meaningless slur.) Here's an example: X:2 T:Salve Regina N:XII century N:A primis Vesperis Festi Ss. Trinitatis usque ad Nonam Sabbati ante Adventum inclusive. U: S = shortphrase M:none K:DDor Doh4 (A-)(AGA) D x SAG (FE)(FGF) ED xQC D DC D EF G DEC D3/x || (A-)(AGA) D | w:Sal-***ve, Re*gi-****na,* ma- ter mi-*se-ri-*c\'or-di-**ae: Vi-***ta, AG (FE)(FGF) ED xQC y D EF G yDEC D3/ x|| DF A yG GFA E | w:dul-*c\'e-****do,* et spes no*stra, sal-**ve. Ad* te cla-*m\'a-*mus, G F EDG xSC D EDG FE D x|| DF A y c G- GFG A x Q D yF{G} G D | w:\'exsu-**les,* fi-li-i** He-*vae. Ad* te sus-pi-*r\'a-*mus, ge-m\'ent-*es et FED C x QD DCF GA G FE G y F{E} DCDx || (F-)(FG) F G{A} A xSc G AGF | w:flen-**tes in hac** lac-*ri m\'a-*rum val-*le.** E-**ia* er-go, Ad-vo c\'a-** D yG A Qd d cBcd A Sd c A GFA G DE F EDC QCD F G{F} | w:ta nos-tra, il-los tu-***os mi-se-ri-c\'or-**des \'o-*cu-los**ad* nos* con- DCD D x|| D yA, CD SD DE ED- D y C y G y F y E{D} G FE DCD | w:v\'er-**te Et Jes um,* be-ne-*di-**ctum fruc-tum vent-*ris tu-* i, DA_B A SAGF G y D F FE DC EFE D D x|| (A-)(AG)(ABc) BAG A x|| (GABc)(cB) | w:no-**bis post** hoc ex si-li-*um* os-**t\'ende* O*****cle-**mens: O AG GA x|| (AD)(FEDC)(D)(SDEFG) G{F} GA D C D (DGF-)(F) ED || | w:pi-*a:* O**********dul*cis* Virgo* Ma-ri-***a. If you comment out the Doh4 in the K: field (and possibly put bangs around shortphrase in the U: definition) it should work with existing programs. You can see what it looks like in Gregorian notation at the above URL. Phil Taylor To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
