ANewman wrote: >>I was only using it as an example of how things could go >wrong if developers >>felt free to intoduce their own innovations without thinking >through the >The modes-as-key-signatures are part of the 1.6 standard, maybe what >you're saying >is that this originally popped up as part of a tool and was incorporated into >the standard out of necessity.
I think the tonic + mode statement of key was always part of abc, and global accidentals came along later as a result of discussions on the then abc developers list. (But I may be wrong - anybody remember what happened before abc 1.5, which is where I came in.) >But in this case the developer extension actually would have been easier >to work >with. So I see it as the other way around, there are about 200 different ways >(literally) to specify key in abc as specified in the standard, Not really. You can specify the null key signature as follows: C CMaj Am Ddor Ephr Flyd Gmix Aaeo Bloc If I'd chosen the key sig with two sharps I could have added HP and Hp. >its pretty hard >to test them all (and apparently the penalty for not testing them is being >pummeled with insults ;-o That's life as a developer. If you get more compliments than insults you're probably doing OK:-) >Anyhoo, I don't think anybody is arguing that modes are not important, but >they're not the same as key signatures. I guess there's no reason that >you couldn't handle both styles of the K: field, its just a few more >permutations to test, but it would have been better to keep the two seperate. Support the 1.6 standard and no one will complain. Leave out the global accidentals and probably no one will complain (they're not much used). Leave out any of the modes and you will get complaints, especially if it's plain old minor. I have 12000 abc tunes on my machine. I just searched them for the string "K:Am" and got 863 hits. Am is probably the commonest entry in the K: field. Having said that, don't take the criticism too hard. You're developing a new program and you can't do everything at once. You have to start with a small subset of the standard and expand it as you go. Phil Taylor To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
