Irwin Oppenheim writes: | On Tue, 24 Jun 2003, Phil Taylor wrote: | > and sensible programs don't need the exclamation | > marks in symbol definitions. | | By now they are part of the de facto ABC standard, so | we have to stick to them.
Not really. As Phil points out, they really aren't necessary, at least in definitions. And there is already some software that allows you to drop them. So a reasonable approach for a programmer would be to make them optional. This would guarantee that your code will accept ABC both with and without them. You should also accept the !..! notation within the abc, on the grounds that some people have implemented this, and there's ABC around that uses it. Granted, for an ornament that you use a lot, you might prefer a definition, to improve readability and save typing. But for a symbol that you use only once, especially things like !Segno!, it's easier to just type it in. Of course, I'm looking at all this from the viewpoint of someone who writes web-based ABC stuff, and my code pretty much has to deal with whatever weird ABC it finds. I can't order anyone to follow any particular "standard" on their own web site. And people routinely think that whatever software they've installed is "standard". So the best approach from my viewpoint is always to try to find a way to deal with all the (reasonable) variants. If you want a standalone package that only deals with ABC entered by its own users, you might have a different attitude. (But then I'd be wondering why you're using ABC at all. ;-) To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
