Philip Rowe wrote:
...
>
> Otherwise, it would be
> hard work to use it as anything other than a viewer for
> Finale files created by other people.
I think that was Coda's idea - a Finale viewer rather than a music editor.
An ABC-to-Finale converter would change that drastically, of course ;)
> It would be wise to make sure that this Finale text format
> will import into free Finale before putting any effort into
> a converter.
It does.
>
> Is the printed output better than anything the ABC community can
> offer?
Yes.
Guido Gonzato wrote:
>
> I have made a few quick tests, and although I must say that FinaleNotePad is
> a nice gift for undemanding users, abc is IMHO better. One thing for all:
> FinaleNotePad does not do PostScript unless you have a PostScript printer.
> Not to mention that actually typing notes is (to many of us, at least)
> quicker and more fun.
That seems to me as an argument in favour of a ABC-to-ETF converter.
Then we can type in ABC *and* get the Finale output.
But I have to say I agree to some extent. I had a look at Finale
NotePad, and although I was aware it was a scaled down version of
Finale, I didn't expect a *butchered* version.
>
> So, to sum up: I think we should spend our time improving and completing
> abc, instead of writing convertion tools of questionable value. IMHO.
(FYI: I definitely can't claim to have an unbiased view here.
I convert ABC to Finale most every day and I'd love to have
a direct route instead of being forced to go through midi.)
I guess that depends on how much work it would mean. I'd definitely say
we need a path from ABC to some high-end notation system - or preferably
paths to as many high-end systems as possible.
The main attraction of the Finale solution is that it ought to be fairly
simple. After all we're "only" talking about remapping clearly defined
parts of one text file to clearly defined parts of another text file.
Also, Finale (the full-scaled version, that is) is at the moment the
most complete notation system in existence. Neither Lilypond nor
MusicTex nor Sibelius is even close when it comes to sheer number of
functions. (I'm not sure if that is too important, though. I have
difficulty imaging that anybody'd ever need Finale's full arsenal for
processing something that started out as a simple ABC file.)
That being said, there already is a convertion path from ABC to
Lilypond. Lilypond produces very nice postsrcipt output, probably has
all the functions needed for the music commonly notated in ABC and
unlike Finale it is an Open Source program. (Personally I couldn't care
less about the latter, but I understand it is *very* important to many
here at abcusers).
Laura Conrad wrote:
>
> I wouldn't waste my time on conversion to a non-free, questionably
> stable format, no.
I don't know what you mean with "stable", Laura. Finale has been around
for more than ten years now and has remained more or less the industial
standard for most of that period. I don't think any other notation
software system can claim anything like that. ETF files writeen ten
years ago are still fully readable by today's versions of Finale (and
soon Lilypond as well). There definitely is a compatibility problem, but
that's the other way round (older versions of the program can't read
newer files), and hardly relevant in this context.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> This is rather similar to the ongoing debate between plain text and
> all the various proprietary word-processor document formats. At first
> glance, word processors look flashy and impressive. But only people
> with compatible software can read them. And in a very few years,
> those fancy documents will become unreadable as new versions of the
> word processor programs come out. But plain ascii text from 30 years
> ago is readable just about anywhere, and will be readable a century
> from now. These are some of the reasons that so many people keep
> insisting on plain text in public mailing lists and archives.
And those are very good reasons.
Of course all music ought to be stored in a universal, standardized file
format, equivalent to ascii.
But there simply ain't no such thing, and the chances is that there
won't be for a while. ABC in its present form certainly doesn't fulfill
that need. XML might, but at the moment it looks more like a dream than reality.
In many ways ETF is the format that comes closest to that goal. It was
originally developed for that very purpose, and it seems to include
everything needed. Unfortunately it never cught on and right now Finale
and (to some degree) Lilypond are the only programs that support it.
>
> Formatting isn't important, and if we lose it, we don't lose much.
> The important thing is the information content.
Yes, but in music notation it's usually impossible to draw a clear line
between information content and formatting.
Frank Nordberg
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