Jack Campin comments: | I have some ABC files where I use the notation as a tunographic | database - there is no body, either because I haven't got round | to typing it in or don't intend to. The GS MacLennan tune file | on my website is an example: I've included bodies for the tunes | I can reproduce with no problem, but for the copyrighted ones | I've simply included a header to describe the tune and say where | to find it. | | I can imagine this might cause problems for some ABC software, | indexes like JC's Tune Finder in particular. Having a reference | to a print or audio source for a tune is an advance on having no | information about it at all, so these null-body tunes should be | indexed, but processing pipelines intended to create sound files | or staff notation will need to throw an exception. | | Would it be easier if there were an explicit keyword to declare | there was no body for the tune? If so, what?
Well, for staff notation, my Tune Finder shouldn't have any probem. It will produce the the title, composer, etc, and no staff. I use several abc2ps clones routinely, and none of them are bothered by this. I'd think that any abc software should accept it, for exactly the reasons that Jack mentions. As for sound files, I use abc2midi, which produces a really short file if there's no tune body. That's about all it can do, I suppose. But it doesn't fail. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
