>>>> The problem is how best to say this. >>>> There is a list of headers that could contain a code for "no >>>> notes". This field already uses a double quote to indicate that >>>> accompaniment chords are present. I wonder if there's a good >>>> single char that could stand for "notes", or maybe for "no >>>> notes"? Perhaps '*' (asterisk) could be used for this, as it >>>> doesn't seem to have any other use, and it is conventionally >>>> used to indicate an explanatory footnote. >>> That sounds pretty good. >> Maybe I'll try implementing it. > I don't think that would be a good idea. IMHO any characters that > might still be available should be reserved to signal new, more > productive contexts. The "no notes" context can be easily be > indicated by a pseudocomment as long as a standard one be agreed > upon. E.g. > %% End of tune
You're misunderstanding where this notation is meant to appear. The asterisk was something for the Tune Finder to display - it already presents a list of the header fields used in the tune, thos would go in the same place. In my GS MacLennan file on the web there is this "tune": X:0 T:Dalnahassaig Z:Jack Campin <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> version 1.0 September 2001 C:Pipe Major George S. McLennan S:Gordon Highlanders Pipe Music Collection volume I B:NLS Mus.D.s.19 R:Strathspey M:C K:Hp % No tune body - index entry which, under John's proposal, would get an entry "TZCSBRMK*" in the Tune Finder. If John's software can identify bodiless tunes without any special signalling, maybe no ABC notation is needed for it; but it still seems to me that it would be a good idea to signal which tunes are *meant* to be that way, to distinguish bibliographies or works in progress from the results of communication/conversion foulups. A single barline, as Phil suggests, is something that couldn't easily comprise a complete tune body by accident, so it could be used for such a convention if everybody agreed on it. A crypto checksum (something I have been arguing in favour of for years) would also serve the same function - you'd know exactly how much tune there was at the moment when the checksum was generated (which in general would be the time when the tune was made public). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack> * food intolerance data & recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files, and my CD-ROM "Embro, Embro". ------> off-list mail to "j-c" rather than "abc" at this site, please <------ To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
