Hi all, I totally agree with Daniel's message, and I want to add a couple of precisions: -Django currently only supports export to the tab format, because from some correspondence I've had with Wayne, he puts the most value in the printed output of his program. While it is true that Wayne's tab format has some qualities and could be used practically as an exchange format - it's in ASCII, and it covers much ground in terms of tablature representation - it is also true that that format was not designed as an exchange format. So it naturally has some shortcomings in that respect. -I started implementing the MusicXML format, which is specifically designed as an interchange format. Unfortunately, it is primarily meant for regular notation and the support for lute tablature is not adequate - at a structural level. When I raised those points, I was informed by Tim Crawford that there a tablature XML format was currently being developed and that it was better to wait a bit. This was at least a year ago and I am not sure what progress was actually made there, if any. -A couple of guitar tablature developers came up with a "rich MIDI format" that includes specific information related to tablature: mostly the string on which a note is played. This is not a bad idea, particularly since MIDI import is becoming a generalized feature. MIDI files are also much shorter than XML documents, but this is less a problem now that networking has improved. -The attitudes of software developers are very divergent on the question of interchange: they go from full cooperation to complete refusal an denial. My position is that if this serves the interests of the users, then it should be good. Also, if the owner of the software can be seen to own in any way the productions made with their tools, we would face some very nasty consequences: what if Bill Gates started owning texts simply because the author chose to write them with his software? There is already a very disconcerting trend that seeks to fudge the basic philosophy behind copyrights and make people think that copyrights are owned by publishers. In fact historically, copyrights were written for the exact opposite purpose: to protect the rights of authors against publishers, who until then never paid their authors. So personally, and while I am all for file interchange, there are some serious details to deal with, and the situation is quite a bit more complicated than Jon made it sound. Cheers, Alain
Daniel F Heiman wrote: >On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 03:33:26 -0500 "Jon Murphy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >writes: > ><snip> > > > >>Now let's apply the lessons of thirty years of >>internet to >>music printing software. >> >> > ><snip> > > > >>. What is needed is a >>protocol for printing staff or tabulation, and subsets that print >> >> >Italian or > > >>French tabulation - or full score or normal staff or C staff or >> >> >whatever. > > >>Finale and the rest should get together and agree on one - at the print >> >> >end. > > >>Then they can concentrate their bells and whistles into the input and >>playback end. No real conversion is required, a simple program to turn >> >> >each > > >>firm's output into a standard print format would suffice, and that >> >> >should be > > >>written by a consortium and offered free. >> >> > >Jon: > >What you have described above has in fact been available for years. >PostScript is a page description language that Adobe created probably 20 >years ago. It has been used for transferring and transmitting printed >output of all kinds of programs (including music printing programs) among >and between all kinds of computing equipment from its earliest days. The >later modification of it called "Encapsulated PostScript" allows for >easier import of the printed output of one program (including all kinds >of music) into many other programs. The expansion of PostScript to >Portable Document Format (PDF) files has led to much more universal use >for the exchange of printed output of all kinds of programs, including >music in pitch notation and tablature. (Examples can be found at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/publications/index.html#retro >and at dozens of other places on the Internet.) The standards for >creating PDF files are in the public domain, and free utilities are >available for converting the output of programs that do not already >include that capability. > >That said, Jon, in spite of what you wrote, what you were probably >driving at was not the exchange of printed output but rather the exchange >of editable data. In fact PostScript can function in that capacity as >well. For more than a dozen years a program called FinalScore has been >available to convert the PostScript output of Finale to SCORE data file >format. It is not free and not perfect, but it is widely used by >professionals in the music engraving business for correcting and editing >for publication material submitted as Finale documents. > >An attempt at a more universal data exchange standard for musical >information is something called Notation Interchange Format or NIF files. > Unfortunately, although it has been around for probably most of a >decade, only a few programs actually support it, and they are relatively >rarely used -- does anyone on this list actually edit music with Lime? > >A newer standard for musical data exchange that looks like it may gain >wider acceptance is MusicXML. The organization pushing it is called >Recordare LLC. See: >http://www.musicxml.org >It is still in the "Version 1" stages and does not support tablature well >yet, but there is clearly interest in extending it in that direction. > >One should not forget Wayne's TAB format. That was the earliest >widely-accepted format for entering tablature data for computer >processing and printing. It is still in use for that purpose, and the >format is supported for data import and export in Fronimo and Django. > >Regards, >Daniel Heiman > ><snip> > > >>Best, >>Jon >> >> >> >>To get on or off this list see list information at >>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> >> >> >> >-- > > >
