I recently read about the ability to index tunes in one or
more abc files using ABCMUS. Unfortunately, I have been
unable to do so. Would some kind individual reply (maybe by
private e-mail) with some simple directions about how to
index the tunes contained in a single abc file. If I can
get one done, multiple files should be easy from that point.
For abcmus, click the file menu, go down to the entry Make
List/Index/etc, click it (or just hit ctrl-shift-L). Go to List Type
in the dialogue box, click to get the pull-down menu, and choose
cheat-sheet. There are fields in the dialogue box to specify the file
or files you want to index, and the file for the output in. There
should be a T in the Sort field, so it'll sort alphabetically by
title. Fill these in, and click Start. It'll write a text file with
each title followed by the first couple of measures in abc.
There are some other list types defined, and in addition you
can also define your own type. You can play around with this to get it
just as you want it. I don't know whether or not you have to register
the program to use this feature, tho.
For abc2mtex, you need a file index.fmt in the directory you
want to index. Put T40 |30 in the file index.fmt. To index
file.abc, type
abc2mtex -i file
sort_in
at the command line. Then the list you want should be in the text
file index in the same directory, sorted by tune title, with the
first two or so measures given in abc. There are lots of other ways
to do this---see the file index.tex in the abc2mtex distribution for
the definitive explanation. of the whole indexing facility.
It's true as Phil says that abc2mex can be a real pain to set
up, since you also need TeX, which itself is non-trivial to set up.
However, that doesn't enter here. The sorting part of abc2mtex works
without having tex installed---it just writes a text file, and you
take it from there. So all you have to do is to compile or download
abc2mtex and sort_in.
It seems a bit baroque to only use abc2mtex for indexing,
but on the other hand, I've often found this indexing facility useful.
Moreover, since the code is freely available, it might give an idea of
how to add this type of sorting facility to other programs.
Cheers,
John
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