From: Dennis Bathory-Kitsz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The competitive model (for now) is acting against a commonality of data, and so one cannot yet choose a variety of interfaces, sets of manipulation tools, and output modules. The common formats that exist (such as Midi, XML, Unicode, etc.) are for now all highly circumscribed and insufficient to the task.
this is a terribly important point. as i mentioned at the start, score has since its beginnings reflected the concerns of high-quality engraving, based on a long-standing tradition with many complex and inter-related protocols, norms, unwritten exceptions, while finale and sibelius came into the market with horrible default settings and have been plagued with - from the start - errors in programming, errors in templates, errors in files such as instrument.txt - and incomplete and inconsistent updates of tools. the incorporation of simple (standardized) typographical capabilities was for me very welcome, but you can't justify in the expression tool (note/measure-attached items), while you can in the text tool (measure/page-attached). this particular "feature" (some, albeit insufficient typographical control) is something that has been a standard in the print realm for centuries. implementation of this was half-ass and irresponsible. every year we receive new upgrades while errors, anomalies, improperly-functioning tools dating from several versions back continue to plague it. i haven't followed the digests for some time, but has EPS support returned to the windows version? many others have their own pet peeves with finale.
regarding the (inevitable) question of whether it is justified to criticise finale so heavily for not being able to accomodate a user community with a huge number of interests, of musical backgrounds, of needs, well, in fact that is exactly how the product is marketed, as if everyone - composers, amateur musicians, non-musicians, church musicians, etc. - should be able to use the product (so please buy it now, and we'll even throw in a water bottle!), so in my view, they have a responsibility they have never lived up to.
-- shirling & neueweise ... new music publishers mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] :.../ http://newmusicnotation.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
