Jon, I can agree with the intent of your principle whereby...
> The notation should be the result of the local program, the > transmission > should be the absolute notes. however, in the case of tablature it has a serious flaw. Tablature implies but generally does not specify note durations. Exceptionally, durations may be indicated by means of hold lines (Nicolas Vallet is a good example of this), but as a rule it is up to the performer to figure out how long each note should last. The course on which the note is to be played is essential to the core information to be transmitted. To illustrate the point, try to convert the absolute notes into Midi values. You have to specify the start and stop event for each note. The start event is easy, the flags in the tablature tell you that. Stop events for one or more notes that follow each other on the same course are easy too (a new note marks the end of the previous one). But for the rest, it is pure interpretation. Best Miles Dempster > Daniel and Alain, > > I confess my ignorance as to music printing and exchange software, and > it > had been a long day and a longer evening. As usual, when late at > night, I > tried to draw the general to the specific. > > You accurately "read between the lines" that my thrust was for data > exchange. And that my long example of the attempts by some companies to > monopolize the internet (considered a "free resource", although it is > actually supported by the owners of the various main frames that do the > routing in the network) was meant to speak to that issue. > > I'm glad to hear that there was an attempt at a universal data exchange > format (NIF), and sad that it hasn't been used (although that might be > an > inadequacy on its part). And pleased to hear that there is another > attempt > (Music XML). > > The point is not that there should be free access to a programmer's > product, > that would be counter productive to innovation. It is that there > should be a > basic protocol agreed to by all involved for data exchange, rather > than a > proprietary protocol that limits it. If any programmer wants to provide > bells and whistles within his work piece that is fine, and each user > will > have a preferred program for creating and printing music (or anything > else > in some other protocol). > > Speaking specifically of music the ideal would be a protocol that could > transmit without regard to notation. The absolute notes themselves. > Whether > that was done as serial notes with individual time signatures, then > the next > line (with voids for open chords, etc) so that there would be ten or > twenty > series for a full score with a header to define them - or a parallel > set of > notes (again with the rests and the voids) is irrelevant. But that is > what I > would see as an ideal data exchange protocol. One that is converted > from > notation to notes for transmission, and back to notation for > reception. Then > the individual programs can treat them as they choose. Perhaps a > modification, and expansion, of the MIDI protocol. > > The notation should be the result of the local program, the > transmission > should be the absolute notes. > > Best, Jon > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
