On Tue, 5 Jun 2001, Johnny Adams wrote:
> > [ re your other post - my copy of the VMP John Winder (1789) file has 53
> > tunes, have you added loads more ? ;) ]
>
> No. Winder (1789) has 53, HSJJ Jackson or Wyresdale has 194, and
> Edward & John Winder somewhere around 200 (we've forgotton to abc
> that one but it will come on site eventually).
Will that then be the "complete" MSS ? I've had it in the back of my mind
to go back to my Winder stuff - what I have is a selection, passed on by
Andy Hornby; I've never actually seen the originals. One day, ideally,
there should be a complete set of everything that was found.
> > This update issue is beginning to annoy me. People occasionally ask if
> > they can put up copies of my stuff, and from time to time I become aware
> > that a lot more people are doing it without asking, and I've always taken
> > the attitude that once I've put something up in public I can't control
> > what happens, so why not just be cheerful about it ? But I wonder what
> > it's all about, really. People seem to think they're doing "the Web" a
> > service by making more copies available. Mirrors are good, yes, but a
> > 5-year-old file with no clue as to where it came from, it seems to me, is
> > likely to head people off from any updated version. Which isn't too
> > helpful.
>
> You can't stop people ripping it off, cocking it up, watering it down
> etc. All you can do is try and be the most reliable and be the place
> where people automatically go first. In a way it's all part of the
> process, like hearing a tune that you wrote being played differently
> in a distant session - and maybe even being told that you're playing
> it wrong ;-)
True. I don't write a lot of tunes (and hardly any see the light of day,
they're not good), but I've had that happen with things I've passed on.
> > I suppose what's bugging me is that, prompted by discussion here, the most
> > recent update of my "Tunebook" (last autumn) included hrefs to the source
> > site in every tune, so I'm noticing how many copies there are of previous
> > versions, which don't include that. The cost of not getting it right first
> > time :-/
> >
> Yes. VMP has stopped publishing briefly while we try and sort out
> our policy on several issues of coding, copyright, etc. As you say,
> it's important to get it right in the early stages and also to set
> things up so that updates are not laborious. Basic mistakes on my
> part have compromised the Salford site for a while and now exams,
> conferences and other aspects of academia are delaying the
> development of the new site.
There's another thing I wish I'd done at the start, but haven't got round
to yet - the X: line is fine across 1 file, but not when you have several
files; I'd like a unique identifier for each tune I type. I remember
Henrik raising this, years ago, and no general agreement being reached.
It would help with cacheing (of tunes, images, midi, whatever), could be
used as a key for a database system, etc etc, and would be A Good Thing.
--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem
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