Jack Campin writes:
>I need to create some publication-quality staff notation using ornament
>signs from the early 18th century. There are four essential ones:
>
> - a + over the notehead
> - an = over the notehead
> - a || over the notehead
> - lines drawn in between two noteheads (in this context,
> it's not a glissando but an articulation effect).
>
>and an optional one: turns notated by putting a ~ through the note stem.
>
I think that this could be done with abc2mtex--certainly the first
three would be easy---one would just have to write macros for them, which
might take a little experimentation, but wouldn't be hard; I'd be glad to
help. I'm less sure about the fourth, since, unless the notes are the
same, it would seem to require using both notes as arguments, which isn't
supported in abc2mtex. Of course you could do it by going directly into
the MusicTeX file...:-( The optional ornament would take a little
fiddling---I haven't tried that before---but shouldn't be too hard,
either. For my money, the MusixTeX output is as good as or better than
abc2ps, and you can do a lot more with the formatting. There's no problem
producing PS or EPS files from it.
>Ideally, I'd like something that will support this on a small 68K Mac,
>creating a PS or EPS file for each tune. (I have no need whatever
>for the book-at-a-time interface that abc4mac uses, and its memory
>requirements are impossible).
>
Hmm...this may kill the MusicTeX approach, since you'd need to set up
TeX and that'll take 5-10 MB of disk space. It's by no means a RAM hog by
modern standards, but does demand its share of memory. If by 68K you mean
the old Motorola chip, it's painfully slow but adequate---that's what I
have at home--25 mh--and I just produced a 200 page tune book for
publication using abc2mtex and the trusty black box. (Not that I'd do it
again...but it's possible.)
Cheers,
John Walsh
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