On 27 Apr 2005 at 9:25, William Roberts wrote: > Perhaps I'm just a pragmatist at heart and > not easily swayed by philosophy, but it seems to me that if a > third-party format is already supported by other applications (like > MusicXML is), so that no especial effort has to be entered into in > order to get access to my data (I know I'd much rather be able to use > my data right away should something happen to Finale, rather than have > to wait n months or years while some clever guy knocks up a program > that can turn my ETF files int o something I can actually, you know, > work with again), and if it's sufficient to convey the data in such a > way that no critical information is lost (like, I imagine, MusicXML > is, at least for my purposes), then it's good enough. > > It just doesn't seem like a good argument to me. What good is an ETF > file, published format or not, if there's no application that can open > and/or edit them? (I know Sibelius can open ETF files, but I hear it > doesn't always do a good job, particularly on files from newer > versions of Finale.)
Well, I'm no fan of Noel's arguments about ETF being an open, documented format (he uses that as evidence that MakeMusic's lack of key escrow for their authorization codes is not needed), but there is a huge difference between the quality of result you could get from an ETF file and from the corresponding MusicXML file. As good as MusicXML has gotten, it still doesn't get the formatting perfectly. Yes, it's vastly superior to what would be required with a mere MIDI import, but it still requires a lot of work to get the result into the exact layout as you had in Finale. The reason is quite simple: an ETF includes information that MusicXML is just not designed to capture and transmit. I agree with your argument that ETF being open doesn't help all that much -- it's like the libertarian argument that poverty would be solved it the poor people would just make more money. But I just wanted to point out that there is a big difference between the potential results from MusicXML as it stands today (and I admit it's constantly improving) and ETF as it already exists. My bet is that you don't remember the failed NIFF project. MusicXML potentially will realize the promise that NIFF had in it, and since it's being developed independently of an particular music notation vendor, it cannot be so easily killed by politics, as NIFF was. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
