Phil Taylor writes:
| >Someone wrote:
| >> >One question is about spaces. I'd prefer to say that the fields of a
| >> >K: line may be separated by spaces, for readability. The only problem
| >> >with this is the abc 1.6 description of "global accidentals", which
| >> >use the same syntax but with the accidentals separated from the
| >> ><tonic> and <mode>. However, I've been unable to find any abc that
| >> >uses global accidentals, or any software that implements it. So
| >> >perhaps we should decree "global accidentals" no longer part of abc's
| >> >syntax, and permit spaces between the K: fields.
| >
| >I'm a bit confused here. My parser (for yaps and abc2midi) implements
| >global accidentals with spaces between them, but these modify the key
| >signature rather than the every individual note. Is this what is being
| >proposed ?
|
| Me too. Is it the case that accidentals separated from the tonic/mode
| by a space are to be treated as global accidentals and applied to each
| note as it occurs, while accidentals written without a preceding space
| are to be added to the key signature?
|
| Currently BarFly follows the standard by sprinkling the global accidentals
| through the music, but I have no problem with doing it the other way.
Hmmm ... I didn't know that. So it has actually been implemented. Is
it actually being used?
| Personally, I'd rather just ignore spaces and leave the decision as
| to how to treat the extra accidentals up to the user.
My opinion is that you're both right, and should leave your parsers
as they are now. I'd be happy to hack my version of abc2ps to go
along with the "optional spaces everywhere" syntax. It shouldn't take
very long.
This will semi-break abc that follows the 1.6 standard. It won't make
such abc wrong, of course; it will just display the accidentals as
part of the key signature. So an option should be provided in BarFly
to restore the 1.6 behavior.
While we're at it, we might start a campaign to encourage abc users
to use more spaces, for readability.
BTW, here's a well-known Greek folk tune for testing. It actually
starts in a zengule scale, then switches to hejaz part way through,
so there's a [K:...] included. Anyone with a Greek or International
folk-dance background will recognize this tune (and it's in a "Jewish
wedding music" book that I have ;-). The "hjz.abc" files have the
correct non-classical key signatures. The "min.abc" files are written
in classical minor, with lots of accidentals and incorrect tonics.
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/Intl/tune/Misirlou_Dhjz.abc
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/Intl/tune/Misirlou_Ehjz.abc
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/Intl/tune/Misirlou_Gmin.abc
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/Intl/tune/Misirlou_Amin.abc
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