On 01-Jun-99 Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:
>> http://members.xoom.com/chrissawer/mutopia.html
>
> xoom claims that your page doesn't exist now,
I've moved it into its own directory so the URL is now:
http://members.xoom.com/chrissawer/mutopia/
I would just like to emphasize that this is a temporary location and when the
site is ready for public announcement it will be on a proper server with no
adverts, etc.
> but I've seen a recent version. Contrary to others, I like the
> preview-of-score idea, It gives you a quick summary of how the music sounds.
> But I would only use it for pages that contain only a small list of files.
I have incorporated this as an option on the "search" page (in fact, it's the
only option so far!) so people can choose to have them displayed with each
piece of music or linked so when you click on the music's title the preview
comes up. I will put a "maximum number of results" option in when the search
facility has been added.
> I think that that PNGs of "M.Clementi" are superfluous. Let's assume
> that people have browser that can render ASCII adequately.
I agree now. The only graphic on the search page is the optional preview.
> Further, the different links should be grouped.
>
> * download printable (PS/PDF a4/letter versions)
>
> * download sourcefiles (typically: .ly)
Are we accepting music files from other sources, then?
> * download playables (typically: .midi)
I wasn't sure about putting midi files on - the ones generated by Lilypond at
the moment are fairly basic - things like ties are ignored. I think they will
get added eventually so that people can listen to what a piece of music sounds
like before downloading it.
> It would be nice to have links like
>
> * other pieces by this composer.
>
> * other pieces from the same era
>
> * other pieces for the same instrument.
This is feasible - I could have it so that clicking on the composer
automatically generates a new search based on that composer, and the same for
era and instrument. I think I'll start a TODO list soon...
> * other pieces with the same level (for teaching/etudes)
This would involve grading all the pieces, which could be troublesome - which
method do you use (I assume all countries are different - I know the UK and USA
are)? This is not something I feel I would be able to do but if someone else
offers to grade each individual piece of music on Mutopia then I'll include it
as an option.
> * collections of pieces (eg. a .ly and .tex file that create a book
> with all cello suites by Bach)
Not sure how I'd do this just yet but it looks like a good idea.
> I realise the latter may require some database engineering, so it
> might be too difficult for now, but an index by composer and by title
> is unmissable.
I will start work on the database soon as it's the next major thing to be added
to the site.
>> Unfortunately due mainly to problems with ps2pdf (the version supplied with
>> Ghostscript 5.10 doesn't seem to work - has anyone used it successfully with
>> Lilypond?)
>
> xpdf doesn't work for me, but gv does. ghostscript-5.10-7,
> gv-3.5.8-7, tetex-0.9-17
That must be it then - I upgraded from Ghostscript 4. pdfs generated with this
did work in xpdf but those from 5.10 don't. Very odd. I've put a note at the
top of the page pointing this out. If you have xpdf, though, you're probably on
a unix system so could use the preferrable ps files anyway.
>> The next major step is to write the search / display algorithms - I
>> now have access to a cgi-bin on a server, so can begin to write
>> this. It will be difficult to test, however, without a larger amount
>> of music. This shouldn't be
>
> I suggest to extract the information for the database from the \header
> fields in the source files. I suggest to store the music on the FTP
> archive in directories of the form
>
> ftp://host/pub/mutopia/Composer/Opus/
>
> I think this scheme minimises probability of collisions, and is very
> predictable. Example:
>
> ftp://host/pub/mutopia/W.A.Mozart/KV331/
>
> contains all editions / all files relating to the Mozart alla turca
> pianosonata. The download links of the website would point to the FTP
> site.
An excellent idea. I don't know what we'd do with pieces without an opus number
(quite a few) - perhaps order them by year. I think famous composers like
Beethoven have standardized "Ohne Opus" (I think) numbers which we could use.
<snip>
> I would like to keep some mutopia pieces within Lilypond to act as
> example how to use Lily in practice. Occasionally, we send the
> updates of Lilypond examples (which occur more frequently due to
> syntax changes) to the FTP archive.
That's fine.
> We should also add a maintainer field to the header format, so updates
> go to the right person.
A good idea. Probably tomorrow I'll get a chance to write a list of the headers
that need to be included in a .ly file for Mutopia, and post it here for
discussion.
>> It's probably sensible for me not to put any ps, pdf or ly files up on the
>> website until we've sorted out the copyright situation on this mailing list.
>> There's no rush, however as I've got plenty to do designing the rest of the
>> site!
>
> Yep. Time to devise a legal document.
I'm too tired to think about that now. I'll have a think about what it should
say. I guess it doesn't want to be too long, but be clear and concise about how
the ps/pdf files may be distributed and what the ly files can be used for.
Chris
--
Chris Sawer - Sussex, England - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
