> > In that case, you probably know that converters are easy, if the > > source language is documented and parsable, and the target language is > > expressive.
The target language has to be documented and parsable, too :-) I wrote XSLT to convert from MEI (http://www.people.virginia.edu/~pdr4h) into Mup (http://www.arkkra.com). Mup is not defined formally; the work was a lot harder in the absence of a grammar. I don't want anyone to think I'm a super genius. I just wrote an undergraduate thesis. During this time, I often had daydreams about a perfect world in which one could write a completely declarative language, say in XML, and feed it to a perfect engraver. My thesis is at http://www.sequent.org/baron/education/ if you are interested (I'm probably going to remain burnt out on this topic for another year or so). > It think this is the direction in which lilypond is going on. I would like to > sharpen my critisism. If only the default settings are used, the language is > already nearly declarative -- in principle, perfect midi output could be rather > easily compiled from such a declarative input. > > You did not, by chance, devise a nice declarative music langugage? > > Would you like to send a little example? No, I'm not equal to that task. MEI is Perry Roland's attempt to define an XML language. It's patterned after TEI in some ways. Perry is a Mup fan, however and the MEI format shows this bias. > Instead, the music which is described declaratively cannot be always typeset the > most beatiful and compact way using a straight-forward prosedure; the tighther > the music is typeset, the more compromises have to be done. Yes, I agree. Music and music notation are so overwhelmingly complicated that writing a "perfect declarative language" might be impossible, I don't know. To *declare* "here is a special symbol with a special property and oh by the way, the defaults won't do" for every possible symbol and property is just so much. It becomes easier at some point to say "move here and draw a line till you get to there." But I am preaching to the choir! And you are all much more knowledgeable than myself. I didn't mean to troll -- don't want to distract anyone from the task at hand. I just thought it was worth consideration. Thanks for the discussion! Baron _______________________________________________ Lilypond-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-devel
