John Chambers wrote - >Geez; there's always someone who will respond seriously to a joke!
Sorry. You make so many comments to the effect that standards are a BAD THING that I didn't realise this one was meant to be a joke. (Curious attitude for a member of the standards committee.) Thanks for the serious reply even if you didn't answer my questions. >As for implementation, there is the general problem of a developer who >responds "Who needs that stupid feature?" This is because he/she >doesn't play any of the sort of music that needs it. and later - >But even if we were to produce an official standard that requires endings... No problem. If a particular piece of software doesn't include a feature that it's user don't use that's no trouble to anybody. A standard doesn't "require" anybody to do anything; it just says "This is how this is being done by other people so if you want to do it and to be able to exchange music with others, it would be a good idea to do it the same way." The problem arises when developers introduce extensions which nobody else knows about or, worse still, are in direct conflict with somebody else's extension. >The early users were mostly involved with >British Isles music, where multiple endings are rarely needed, and >third endings are hardly ever seen at all. I'm involved with British Isles music and I'd like multiple endings. Rarely isn't never. >Jim was writing abc2win in the early days of abc, long before the >rest of us knew what was up. Talk about a "standard" was years in the >future. It was an informal effort involving a handful of musicians >who were also programmers. Criticising them for not doing a standards >effort is hardly appropriate. So why do you do it? I seem to recall remarks like "gross violations of the standard" and "deviant" with reference to abc2win. I'm not criticising the early developers; it's the curernt situation that worries me. We ARE now years in the future. ABC has moved on and now involves hundreds if not thousands of people across several continents (Well, we get junk mail from Turkey). We can't all get together in the pub for a friendly chat. ABC is all right. With a bit more cooperation between the developers it could be bloody fantatstic. Bryan Creer To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
