From: "Richard Robinson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:01 PM Subject: [abcusers] ABC and MusicXML
> > Is anybody else here looking much at MusicXML ? I've been having a look > over the last few days, and I must say, I'm rather impressed. It seems > to me that this could all be tremendously useful to us, as ABC users. Starting from the position that as far as our site is concerned, abc's importance lies more in a simple storage method and having nice programs to produce graphics and MIDI than in human readability of abc. (perhaps John Chambers for example to confirm or deny this... Do most casual visitors to a site want a MIDI to play back or a GIF or to download the abc itself for a tune?).. If there were abc2MusicXML and MusicXML2abc converters, would it possible to produce abc that always conformed to the same set of abc "rules"? One problem I have that has been commented on by Jack Campin for one is that our abc is not always as clear to read as it could be. I agree with that but on the otherhand, on a site stuggling to get any contributers, the last thing I want to do is stipulate rules as to how the abc should be written (especially given our main aims above - that it works on abcm2ps and abc2midi is the priority... but it would be nice to improve in our abc for those who want to read it) or even what software should be used (e.g. our main contributer uses Harmony Assistant) as the tougher I make it, the fewer will be willing to try. A big problem with abc for me is the multiple ways abc has of doing the same thing, e.g. broken notation vs explicit note lengths, the ability to write 3/2 or 3/, etc. particularly when not everyone [and that pretty much includes me because of music reading difficulties] can use abc directly.) Also, if other programs can export XML directly, I guess that will help to if we can produce abc from that? Jon To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
