Dear Alain, That's excellent news. It wouldn't matter to me which system is the default, as long as one has the option for one's preferred system.
It is indeed a remarkable age that we live in, with ever-increasing possibilities for the availability and distribution of information. It is not so many years ago that I was hand-copying music for the Lute Society and the Viola da Gamba Society. It used to take me ages. With computers and music software so readily available, all that copying would be unthinkable now. Thanks. :-) All the best, Stewart. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alain Veylit" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Stephan Olbertz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 1:22 PM Subject: Re: Tablature rhythm signs > This is indeed one area where software developers have to struggle - > Historically, it seems to me that the value of the beat got shorter and > shorter, and there are some reasons why grand staff transcriptions may > chose to halve the original values: it is easier for instance to show the > different voices in 8th notes than quarter notes, because 8th notes can be > tied. Since both systems of representation have pros and cons, it makes > sense for the software to try and support both the original representation > and the tweaked modern approach. this is not easy because two quarter notes > and two tied 8th notes are very different things. Also, printers of the > period faced some technical and graphical problems just the same as we do > today - or worse. So manuscripts may be different from printed works. There > are also sometimes geographically based preferences for some system over > another. Finally, software users who do send feedback tend to have a > significant impact in terms of preferences, particularly if their request > makes sense and can be converted into code in a fairly straightforward way. > An example of a problem I faced is this: if as Stewart says a minim is > represented by a stem with a single tail, then a stem with 2 tails is a > quarter note. These in modern notation would not be tie-able, but I am > pretty sure that in some manuscripts they are... Then, if you decide they > are tied, how many horizontal dashes should they have: 0 because they are > quarter notes, 1 because they are the first level of tied notes, or two to > match the tails on the stand-alone flag? > We could have historical models - like the Lachrimae - to help resolve some > of those issues, but if I recall, the viols parts are unbarred. And even if > one publication of the time gave some firm evidence, that evidence could be > disproved in some other publication of the time... All the while I am > writing this I also think about ornament systems that are even worse from > those points of view... > Django does offer the option to equate one flag tail with a minim > (half-note), but it is not the "default" mode - the main reason being I > think that our modern mind has got used to the shorter beat value and a > maximum of tied notes. > There is no manual of "software development for historical music notation" > - and this is the exciting part for all of us: users can still directly > communicate and influence the direction of the development of those new > tools and take a very active part indeed. From the point of view of > software, things have evolved at a mind boggling pace in the past ten > years: we are living a truly unique period in time, with extraordinary > potential. A lot of flexibility has been added to my own software in the > past few years, and the main challenge that I see now is that of > articulating the complexity that underlies that new flexibility with a > fairly simple interface for the user, so they can chose easily what fits > their needs best. > I'll be happy to make the one tail equal minim the default value if there > is a consensus on that point - in the meantime it is at least available as > an option. Sorry if I made it sound unnecessarily complicated - > Alain
