Re: Why XML is a bad idea[longish] (was Re: [abcusers] draftfor V:)

[Frank Nordberg]

John Henckel wrote:
> 
> At 04:39 PM 1/5/2001 +0100, Frank wrote:
> >I've started building a multiformat sheet music search engine, indexing
> >music in GIF, JPEG, PS, PDF and ABC formats (the only truly
> >cross-platform compatible formats for notated music).
> 
> What??  You forgot the most important one!  MIDI files are cross-platform
> and they are "notated" in the sense that they have "notes" in them.

That's right, you could probably add guitar tabs as well. Actually my
search engine also includes midi files, but not on their own - only when
they are connected to files in some of the other formats.

The reason is simple: The Free Sheet Music Search Engine is for standard
notation sheet music only, that is either graphical images (GIFs,
PDFs...) of notated music or files directly and reliably convertable to
standard notation (ABC). Despite what some hotheads might claim, you
can't count on being able to convert a midi file to notated music.
Sometimes it works, but usually it doesn't. That's not *only* due to the
limitation of current translating programs, but also limitations in the
midi standard itself and the way it's used.

Besides, there are already so many good midi search engines out there,
so why bother making another one?

Frank Nordberg
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