Interesting. The thing that has bothered me for a long time is whether
being able to have files dropped on you is worth a megabyte of download
time.
When I built Muse I avoided MFC because the instant you touch it the file
size goes up by a megabyte (it may be more). Now it may be possible to be a
drop target "the hard way" and only use a few bytes, and the Internet is
getting faster, but are we there yet. (In fact I compile Muse with MSDev 4
because that also gave a smaller executable).
This is the reason why you can't drop files onto Muse.
On the other hand, it gives huge amount of function, I am frequently told
that it's very easy to use (contrast the endless notes on this forum about
how do you tweak this or that abc app to overcome its limitations) and is
just over 300K to download and that includes the online help which is about
the same size as the executable.
So, while I agree with all of the sentiments expressed - I also must add
that a "normal user can expect" the Internet to download a 3MB file in 10
seconds.
Of course he/she will be disappointed!!
So (and obviously this is a matter of opinion) what are these functions
worth in download space?
And incidentally, was Muse one of the programs that you tried? I'm
currently doing a massive re-write and "being a drop target" is actually not
one of the things I was going to do. I thought that before doing that I
would do:
* Much better support for piano-like scores
* Much better support for lyrics
* Much better ease of entry (and it was already very good)
(I'm keying in the choruses of The Messiah as a test case for that lot)
* Much easier control of play (quite a few choral singers use it to help
learn their parts).
* Live MIDI input (which has always been just over the horizon because it
sort of works, but gives more effort in post-editing than it saved in
typing).
* Easier/better guitar tablature generation
An I may throw in a "suggest a guitar chord" function because it looks like
fun.
The lyrics stuff will probably include support for w: and W: in ABC.
Opinions?
Incidentally, I presume that Muse was not one of the ones you tried as it
has not been recently announced on the list. If you give it a try, do let
me know what you think. If you want to be a guinea pig for the rewrite, I
have fairly robust running code, though obviously not all the above features
are yet working and the on-line help is very much behind.
Laurie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Forgeot Eric" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 8:46 PM
Subject: [abcusers] iabc, and features expected in softwares in general
I've downloaded the recent softwares annonced on the list. For
iabc, the display is really better than previous version (even if
it's not at the level of postscript application) and it looks
promising. But there is still some limitations.
Here is what a "normal" user can expect from a software
(especially music / abc related). It's only my preferences and
several users would not understand my wishes but it may help
nevertheless. It's not about display / hearing abc, but it's about
program conveniences and file management.
In my opinion this software should :
- open files with "drag and drop" (for windows, but maybe for
other O/S too)
- when you open file from the dialog box (file...open... etc.),
give the choice in the file type filter to choose other extensions
(not only *.abc, but *.* ) otherwise (especially if there is no
"drag and drop support"), there is no way to open a file which
have a bad choosen extension (for example *.txt instead *.abc),
unless to rename it. There is this limitation in iabc
- allow to enter data directly into the application, without
opening any file (from an other application with "copy and paste,
or from scratch) : skink does this very well with its conveniant
field when we can enter notes.
- not "lock" a file loaded especially if it doesn't write anything
in it : in iabc it's not possible to make correction in an abc
file (with an ascii editor for example) and then save it to review
it later in iabc : the file is write protected by iabc. And if you
load an other file in order to "free" the previous file, the
previous is still locked : you just have to close iabc and then
open the application again, find the right folder, reload the file
etc.
- save folder preferences (favorite folders ) and keep the last
directory used in a configuration (log or .ini) file.
- add keyboard shortcuts for every command (or for the most used
at least)
- follow the general convention for shortcuts ("ctrl + c" for
copy, "ctrl + a" for select all etc.)
- when several tunes are processed, not stop if it detects an
error in a tune : just ignore the tune and follow on with the
other tunes
- eventually try to display the tune nevertheless if an error is
detected (but gives warnings) : it's maybe a minor one
(unsupported feature) and the tune may look quite the same
- gives a lot of option (possibility to allow / disallow a display
option, a command, to change the fonts, the size etc.)
- if there is a lot of tunes in a file, doesn't process all of
them at the opening, but process / check those on request (the
specific ones we want to display) : it will save times.
for the tune reels.abc you give as example with iabc, it takes 1
minutes to process all the 373 tunes in it. With AbcMus it takes
only 1/2 second ! It only check the numbers I guess and make the
calculation on a tune request, and if there is errors in some
tunes it won't be blocked and even try to play them as well. I can
also add that AbcMus can most of the other features I mentionned
above (it's a coincidence because I've just checked this
afterwards, but it may indicate AbcMus is a conveniant,
well-designed, software). Anyway, it's not a nasty critic for the
other programs which are works in progress and grow in features. I
hope they will make their marks in the future !
An interesting tune which doesn't display (unless editing them) in
both skink and iabc :
X: 973
T:The Limerick Tinker
N:"Collected by J.O'Neill"
B:O'Neill's 973
Z:Transcribed by Dan G. Petersen, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:Am
A2B cBA|BAG AGE|A2B cee|dBA G2({A/G/}E)|
A2B cBA|BAG A2e/^f/|gba g2e|dBG G2B||
efe edB|e2A ABd|efe edB|dBG GBd|
efe edB|e2A A2(e/^f/)|gba g2e|dBG G2B||
({c/d/}c2)A B2A|({e/f/}e2)A A2B|({c/d/}c2)A B2A|dBA GAB|
cBA BAG|AGE GAB|gba g2e|dBG G2B|]
Grace notes gives error in skink (if it had ignored the "{" and
"}" it wouldn't have detrayed the original tune and with a warning
the user would have understood why there was too much notes in
some bars)
Iabc doesn't understand the K:Am (it works well if we replace K:Am
by K:C (but the purists will be offended))
there is also a limitation in iabc which cause tunes with a X:
field with a high number to be well processed but it won't be
displayed later.
For example those tunes will work in iabc only if we change X:
fields to a smaller number
X: 953
T:Bessy Murphy
N:"Collected by Ennis"
B:O'Neill's 953
Z:Transcribed by Dan G. Petersen, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:D
(A/G/)|F2G ABc|ded cAG|FGA cAG|FGA A2G|
F2G ABc|ded cAG|FDF GAG|FDF G2:|
g|fed cde|fed cAG|FGA cAG|FGA A2g|
fed cde|fed cAG|FDF GAG|FDF G2:|
X: 954
T:Paddy O'Rafferty
N:"Collected by F.O'Neill"
B:O'Neill's 954
Z:Transcribed by Dan G. Petersen, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:G
GAB DED|DcB AGE|GAB DED|GAG GED|
GAB DED|DcB ABc|dcB AGE|GAG GED:|
DBB DAA|DBB AGE|DBB DAA|GAG GED|
DBB DAA|DBB ABc|dcB AGE|GAG GED:|
dcd efg|ded dBG|d^cd efg|GAG GED|
d^cd efg|ded def|gfe dcB|GAG GED:|
BDD EDD|BGB AGE|BDD EDD|GAG GED|
BDD EDD|BGB ABc|dcB AGE|GAG GED:|
B2G A2G|B2G AGE|B2G AGE|GAG GED|
BGG AGG|BGG ABc|dcB AGE|GAG GED:|
X: 955
T:I Do Not Incline
B:O'Neill's 955
Z:Transcribed by Dan G. Petersen, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:G
(G/E/)|DB,D G2A|B>cB A>GA|BGE EGA|BE E2(G/E/)|
DB,D G2A|B>cB AGA|BGE DEF|GAG G2:|
(G/A/)|BGG AFF|GEE FDD|E>FE E2(G/A/)|BGE E2(G/E/)|
DB,D G2A|B>cB A>GA|BGE DEF|GAG G2:|
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