On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, [iso-8859-1] Erik Ronstr�m wrote: > I think I'd get your point anyway.
I don't think you do get my point. It seems self-evident to me that ABC is pseudo-staff notation. You have made it clear *that* you disagree, but not *why*. Where else do you think ABC got the concepts of whole notes, beaming, barlines, etc., if not from staff notation? It's hard for me to imagine how you define pseudo-staff notation, if ABC doesn't qualify. > My point was that we should have a language that is precise in it's > *syntax*, that is, the way in which music is notated and the way in > which the language should be interpreted. In other words: what is > allowed and what is not. I agree, and there is *nothing* imprecise about ^f-|f if you simply amend the standard to codify the rule -- a rule that most people seem to be following anyway. I still see no advantage to using ^f-|^f. > In other words: don't blame the abc source for not looking in a > specific way when converted into staff notation. Blame the program! > And if you *do* expect the staff to look in a certain way: don't use > abc - use a music typesetting program or whatever. I disagree. The ABC standard is full of indications that it has historically been intended primarily as a source for *generating* staff notation. See the section on beaming... Beaming is meaningless outside of staff notation. There are also many instances of language like "character x is used to generate symbol y." There's even an ASCII *drawing* of a five-line staff, with ledger lines, in the standard itself! The basic philosophy seems to be "draw what I tell you to draw." So, I would counter your suggestion by saying that if you want to write stand-alone notation, irrespective of how it would appear on the staff, maybe *you* are the one who shouldn't be using abc. (Whether or not abc *should* be stand-alone is another question entirely. My point is simply that is is not stand-alone *now*. Not by a long shot.) John To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
