On 19 Mar 2005 at 16:04, dhbailey wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > I'm fairly sure that this is a daft question and that I know the
> > answer already, anyway, here goes.
> >
> > I engraved the score and parts for a work which was recorded for CD
> > today.
> >
> > During the recording session, the composer had "second thoughts"
> > about a number of things, mainly articulations in the string parts.
> >
> > Now the daft question - is there any way of linking the score and
> > extracted parts so that the changes I make in the score are
> > reflected in the parts so that I don't have to re-extract them (I
> > don't want to have to "re-tweak" them)
> >
>
> There is a way to do what you want, it's just that Finale programmers
> haven't figured out how to do it. :-(
>
> David Fenton has waged a long battle for dynamically linking parts and
> scores, but so far it has fallen on deaf ears at MakeMusic.
>
> To be fair, there may not actually be a way to do it, . . .
Sure there is! Finale already keeps track of certain kinds of things
that apply only to certain layouts (such as staff groups defined in
scroll view vs. groups defined in page view), so it's really only the
application of a concept common to any application that presents data
drawn from a database: the presentation should be separate from the
data insofar as that is possible.
Now, Finale's file format is unquestionably a database, and a
hierarchical one. It's only a matter ("only," he said) of making sure
that content and presentation are stored separately. Now, how mixed
up content and layout happen to be in an Enigma database, I can't
say. But there's no question that it's possible.
It could probably even be done without changing the current file
format by simply implementing sub-classing at the database level (or
sub-/super-types, in DB terminology).
> . . . but everything
> David has suggested has made sense, and it can be done with documents
> as diverse as spreadsheets, word-processors and graphics programs
> where you can change a single number on a spreadsheet and all the
> values are recalculated, any references in a word processor or a
> graphics program (or both) to any numbers on that spreadsheet are
> updated to reflect any such changes, the next time those documents are
> opened. I am confident there is a way to do what you want, but as I
> said, the Finale programmers haven't figured out how to do it yet.
Or they aren't even trying.
I think Finale, with its unlinked templates and unlinked libaries, is
terribly flawed at a basic conceptual level, and to get linked parts
would probably require a rethinking of the whole application in its
many parts.
> My bet is the first notation software which does that (Sibelius,
> Finale or the newly developping Notion software from
> http://www.notionmusic.com which may give these two giants a run for
> their money) first will eventually be the last engraving software
> standing. It will be such a huge time-saver that everybody using
> anything else will jump ship and begin using that program.
Finale already offers something Special Part Extraction, but doesn't
save layout settings for it separately from standard score layout. If
it did that, we'd already be home free in regard to most of the
benefits of "linked" parts (keep in mind that I don't advising
linking independent part files back to a score file, but simply to
make parts a different view of the same score).
--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc
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