I can't quote John Chambers message on this verbatim because the
message is on another machine, but he argued that the exact interpretation
of global/extra accidentals should be left as a local option for
programs rather than defined strictly within abc.
I disagree with this. abc is primarily a system of notation for music,
rather than source code for programs which convert it to other forms.
The interpretation of accidentals is fundamental to the use of abc
as a medium of exchange; get the accidentals wrong and you've got the
tune wrong. Conventional notation has strict rules for the interpretation
of accidentals (although these have changed over time).
The extended key signatures which are now being used to represent non-
classical modes may not yet have these strict rules, and depend on
the players knowing how to do the right thing but I don't think we
should introduce that kind of ambiguity into abc. In principle, a
piece of musical notation should be constructed so that any musician
can play the tune correctly, regardless of whether he is familiar
with that genre or not.
Phil Taylor
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