Bryan, I think you've hit on the nub of the (pick one) disagreement/
argument/difference in world view between yourself and many of
the people on this list
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Phil Taylor says -
>
> >The system of using ^ and _ to
> >denote annotations over or under the staff was proposed by Wil Macaulay
> >about two years ago and incorporated in the next version of BarFly
> >(which also allows < and > to place the annotation to the left or right
> >of the note head when you want to annotate a particular note in a chord).
> >Most programs have followed suit.
>
> This is still a bodge of the guitar chord system and too little too late. It
> isn't safe to assume that any text within double quotes that doesn't start
> with one of those symbols is a chord.
Correct. But any text within double quotes that _does_ start with one
of those symbols can be safely used as an annotation, so IT IS NOW POSSIBLE
to write an abc file that can be safely played by abc2midi (or BarFly, or Muse) and
properly
displayed by abc2ps (or BarFly or Muse). Sure, it is also possible to write one that
plays weirdly...
>
>
> >The only responsibility I acknowledge
> >towards the users is to make sure that it won't do them any harm
> >(carry viruses, corrupt their operating system etc).
>
> Well giving them software that produces "abc" that is inconsistent with any
> other abc isn't exactly doing them favours is it?
>
Here's where I really believe that you just "don't get it" - software DOESN'T
produce abc, people do. People will twist it to serve their own needs, if
they don't have a good way to do it in the standard, and if those needs
are seen as useful to multiple people they will get addressed, eventually.
But you can still type random strings into a file and _something_ will
happen, just like you can still divide by zero in a c++ module.
Sorry for shouting...
>
> Bryan
>
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--
Wil Macaulay email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Syndesis Ltd. 28 Fulton Way Richmond Hill, Ont Canada L4B 1J5
"... pay no attention to the man behind the curtain ..."
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