Re: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
Toni Schilling wrote: Don't you think it's time to change the subject-line of this thread? Definitely not! Discussions at abcusers always turn out this way, and finally we have found a subject-line that covers all bases! ;-) To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
On 25 Oct 02 3:08 pm, John Chambers wrote: Of course, as with the plain-text vs word-processor debate, ABC lacks most of the fancy music formatting of some other packages. Once upon a time, the orchestra was given the tune perhaps an indication of the bass line together with some general comment about what sort of dance that was that. ABC can already deal with this very well, and I should imagine that that is all that the majority of musicians that use it want or need. But if we can keep it that way, with just the music and a minimum of formatting stuff, then ABC will probably live for a long time, for the same reason that we'll have plain-text files around for a long time despite all the efforts of the Word Processor vendors to discourage or block its use. Just so. A good analogy. Cannot help feeling that attempts to make ABC more sophisticated would largely defeat it's greatest virtue - of being essentially a simple `pencil paper' notation method. -- RJP - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.sedric.co.uk. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
RE: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
Don't you think it's time to change the subject-line of this thread? Toni To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
On 24 Oct 02 5:16 pm, John Chambers wrote: hand-written, human readable music notation that didn't even require a computer, much less any specialized software. There are quite a lot of abc users who still use it this way. I've suggested this to a number of people who asked me how to solve their abc software problems, and some of them have been happy with the answer. Y. that is it's main virtue AFAIKS Maybe some day we'll all have full music software on our pocket comm gadgets. A tin whistle / Harmonica in the pocket is easier... (apart from the fluff) to always use fancy music software, the Lilypond and MusicML folks are going to give you something much more powerful than ABC. The value of ABC is that it's simple, typable, and readable without any special software. If we lose that, we will have lost one of the main reasons that ABC came into existence in the first place. Something like Sibelius is just NOT going to be matched where complex musical notation is concerned. What might be useful is an import / export facility for ABC that could be worth doing I reckon. -- RJP - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.sedric.co.uk. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
RJP wrote: | On 24 Oct 02 5:16 pm, John Chambers wrote: | Maybe some day we'll all have full music software on our pocket comm | gadgets. | A tin whistle / Harmonica in the pocket is easier... (apart from the fluff) At musical events, I often have a whistle or three tucked into a belt. If people ask about them, I can grab one, hold it like a stiletto, and warn them to not give me any flack about wrong notes. Well, it does get a few grins. Too bad my whistles only know how to play tunes that I know. You'd think that after all these centuries, they could make them smarter. | to always use fancy music software, the Lilypond and MusicML folks | are going to give you something much more powerful than ABC. The | value of ABC is that it's simple, typable, and readable without any | special software. If we lose that, we will have lost one of the main | reasons that ABC came into existence in the first place. | | Something like Sibelius is just NOT going to be matched where | complex musical notation is concerned. Don't bet on that. The Open Source model is showing a strong record of producing software that radically outperforms commercial products. This is starting to become a real embarrassment to the corporate culture. It's why the Big Guys are starting to use politics and regulation to ensure that only corporate software is permitted. Thus, if things like Lilypond can be blocked by the proposed DRM mechanism, then Sibelius and other approved packages will win by default. It's highly likely that the musical amateurs will produce much more useful tools, but you may not be permitted to use them. | What might be useful is an import / export facility for ABC | that could be worth doing I reckon. Yeah. It's basically like the situation with Word Processor software. They are all forced to input and export plain text, no matter how much they'd like to block such text. If I'm selling a commercial package, I'd much prefer that you can only use the files with my software. That way, you (and your friends) have to keep paying me, or your files become unusable. But a plain-text notation like ABC throws a monkey wrench into such plans. If you can write your music as ABC, you can use your files without any special tools at all, and you can import the tunes into a competitor's package. Of course, as with the plain-text vs word-processor debate, ABC lacks most of the fancy music formatting of some other packages. But if we can keep it that way, with just the music and a minimum of formatting stuff, then ABC will probably live for a long time, for the same reason that we'll have plain-text files around for a long time despite all the efforts of the Word Processor vendors to discourage or block its use. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
Thanks to Aaron and Frank for their input; I used both. Aaron's tune, while only a few keystrokes away from being perfectly acceptable ABC, wasn't quite the way I remembered the tune as being structured, but having it that way made it far quicker to get it the way I wanted from those MIDIs. I hadn't realized quite how much of a folk art MIDI had become. The variants of it I found were about as divergent as anything you'd find for a Scottish tune. I was rather taken with the wondrously sentimental Filipino arrangement with the floral background; that woman has a career mapped out for her designing the ambience for Oriental restaurants. Weird coincidences: I last heard the tune three years ago played by a Northumbrian piper from the US who has his own elaborate arrangement, and I met him again yesterday at a Buddhist funeral having not seen him in between and having no idea he'd be there. He was explaining the Four Noble Truths to somebody when I last saw him and I couldn't very well interrupt the theological instruction to ask him to whistle it. === http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ === To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
At 04:35 PM 10/24/2002 +0100, you wrote: But a preposition is not a word to end a sentence with. Reminds me of a joke I heard recently: Man from Alabama: So, mister, where are you from? Man from Boston: Somewhere where we do not end a sentence with a preposition. Man from Alabama: OK, where are you from, a**h*le? Gary J Sibio [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~garysibio/ What if squirrels are really the first line in an attack by extraterrestrials and our dogs are trying to warn us??? To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
Curious. Did these work in the abc software you put them together in? (How's that for a split infinitive?) Actually that is not a split infinitive. You don't need to really bother about them though. Some authorities on English (e.g. Fowler) say that people make fools of themselves trying to not split them and allowing them to just be split is fine. Laurie To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Please try tunes on your abc player before posting them. Nobody wants to post or read abc that doesn't work. Good point, David, but is that really the right way to greet a new contributor? I know you only wanted to offer some helpful advice, but it ended up looking like sour criticism - to my eyes at least. In this particular case, all that's needed is to replace the double line shifts with single ones - not too difficult and not nearly as bad as *some* abcs posted here even by experienced abcusers (myself included ;-) Don't know what you mean about missing K: fields, though. They come up just fine in my copy of the message. (It's K:F , btw). Oh well, since we're at it, here's some helpful advice or sour criticism (it all depends on your point of view ;-) from me too: The standard abc repeat sign is: :| not :|| The latter is a very common typo and most modern abc applications should be able to sort it out, but don't count on it. The M: and L: fields aren't strictly necessary for this tune, since the default values (M:C - L:1/8) are the correct ones, but I don't think it's a good idea to leave them out from tunes posted on the web. You never know what kind of weird badly-programmed application people will try to run it through. Frank Nordberg http://www.musicaviva.com To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [abcusers] Over the rainbow
Please try tunes on your abc player before posting them. Nobody wants to post or read abc that doesn't work Better yet I'll just stop posting.
