Re: [TeX-music] Kuykens's warning, history of MusiXTeX
Don Simons skryf: I agree that disk space is no longer an issue, and that the tone of the Kuyken remark is too negative, However, it is still true, at least for the tetex distribution, that MusiXTeX sails dangerously close to TeX capacity exceeded. Dirk ___ TeX-music mailing list TeX-music@icking-music-archive.org http://icking-music-archive.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [TeX-music] Kuykens's warning, history of MusiXTeX
Don Simons skryf: I agree that disk space is no longer an issue, and that the tone of the Kuyken remark is too negative, However, it is still true, at least for the tetex distribution, that MusiXTeX sails dangerously close to TeX capacity exceeded. really? even in tetex 3, which has (by default) *huge* arrays...? if it's in scraping the ceiling in tetex, it'll scrape the ceiling in any distribution whatever. (of course, if you're talking about shortages of counts, etc., that is fixed by etex.sty, exactly the same in any distribution.) robin ___ TeX-music mailing list TeX-music@icking-music-archive.org http://icking-music-archive.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
RE: [TeX-music] Kuykens's warning, history of MusiXTeX
On Mon, 10 Jul 2006, Don Simons wrote: The draft of the new version of the MusiXTeX manual is available at http://icking-music-archive.org/software/mxdoc109d.pdf . On p.iii (Preface to Version T.113) it says This documentation is rather technical and is probably not the best way to begin typesetting music. If you are a beginner, you should visit the software section of the Werner Icking Music Archive. In particular, we recommend Cornelius Noacks tutorial. It contains helpful information for getting started with MusiXTEX, as well as a tutorial for PMX, a preprocessor for MusiXTEX with a much simpler input language, and a brief introduction to M-Tx, a preprocessor for PMX which eases the inclusion of lyrics. On p.iv (Preface to Version T.113) it says It remains true that this is the definitive reference to all features of MusiXTEX, but also that it is not the best place for a novice user to start. The Werner Icking Music Archive contains excellent and detailed instructions for installing MusiXTEX and the strongly recommended preprocessors PMX (for instrumental music) and M-Tx (for vocal) under Linux/unix or Windows 2000. Once the software is installed, most common music typesetting tasks can be accomplished entirely by using one of these preprocessors to generate the MusiXTEX input file, relieving the user of learning any of the commands or syntax of MusiXTEX itself. It is only for out-of-the-ordinary constructions that one must learn these details, so he may insert the necessary MusiXTEX commands into the preprocessors input file as so called inline TEX. Cornelius Noacks tutorial is an important resource which, in addition to gently introducing the novice to PMX and M-Tx, gives further details on installing Postscript slur facilities. On p.1 it says ... However most users will find it far less taxing to let such decisions be made largely by the preprocessor PMX, which in addition uses a much simpler input language than MusiXTEX. I think 3 mentions in the first three pages of text is adequate promotion for PMX. (That's three more than Daniel ever gave it.) I agree that disk space is no longer an issue, and that the tone of the Kuyken remark is too negative, but my main problems with the quote are that it comes *before* any mention of PMX and doesn't provide any way out. I certainly don't disagree with the part about setting up TeX and MusiXTeX; witness for example Christian's recent tangle with Type 1 fonts for pdfTeX in Fedora Core 4. Bottom line, though, is that in view of the prevailing sentiment so far, I'm leaning toward removing the quote. --Don Simons -Original Message- (cut) I decidedly agree with Don in most of his points, and my vote is to leave everything in the present version as is. I probably didn't q On Mon, 10 Jul 2006, Don Simons wrote: The draft of the new version of the MusiXTeX manual is available at http://icking-music-archive.org/software/mxdoc109d.pdf . On p.iii (Preface to Version T.113) it says This documentation is rather technical and is probably not the best way to begin typesetting music. If you are a beginner, you should visit the software section of the Werner Icking Music Archive. In particular, we recommend Cornelius Noacks tutorial. It contains helpful information for getting started with MusiXTEX, as well as a tutorial for PMX, a preprocessor for MusiXTEX with a much simpler input language, and a brief introduction to M-Tx, a preprocessor for PMX which eases the inclusion of lyrics. On p.iv (Preface to Version T.113) it says It remains true that this is the definitive reference to all features of MusiXTEX, but also that it is not the best place for a novice user to start. The Werner Icking Music Archive contains excellent and detailed instructions for installing MusiXTEX and the strongly recommended preprocessors PMX (for instrumental music) and M-Tx (for vocal) under Linux/unix or Windows 2000. Once the software is installed, most common music typesetting tasks can be accomplished entirely by using one of these preprocessors to generate the MusiXTEX input file, relieving the user of learning any of the commands or syntax of MusiXTEX itself. It is only for out-of-the-ordinary constructions that one must learn these details, so he may insert the necessary MusiXTEX commands into the preprocessors input file as so called inline TEX. Cornelius Noacks tutorial is an important resource which, in addition to gently introducing the novice to PMX and M-Tx, gives further details on installing Postscript slur facilities. On p.1 it says ... However most users will find it far less taxing to let such decisions be made largely by the preprocessor PMX, which in addition uses a much simpler input language than MusiXTEX. I think 3 mentions in the first three pages of text is adequate promotion for PMX. (That's three more than Daniel ever gave it.) I agree that disk space is no longer an issue, and that the tone of the Kuyken remark is too
[TeX-music] Kuykens's warning, history of MusiXTeX
Does anybody know when Hans Kuykens's warning at the beginning of the MusiXTeX manual was written? (... awesome job which gobbles ...) Of course the disk space part is now obsolete, but I'm just curious. Has anybody an old, old MusiXTeX manual? Could even be from the MusicTeX times. Regards, Jean-Pierre Coulon [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ TeX-music mailing list TeX-music@icking-music-archive.org http://icking-music-archive.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [TeX-music] Kuykens's warning, history of MusiXTeX
On Mon, 10 Jul 2006, Jean-Pierre Coulon wrote: Does anybody know when Hans Kuykens's warning at the beginning of the MusiXTeX manual was written? (... awesome job which gobbles ...) Of course the disk space part is now obsolete, but I'm just curious. Has anybody an old, old MusiXTeX manual? Could even be from the MusicTeX times. It is at least 10 years old. As I began with the MusicTeX program, I certainly did not chose it for the challenge of mastering an awesome job, but for typesetting notes. If I would have read the manual, I would have quit right away after reading this sentence. Luckily, I learned musicTeX from the Latex-book of Helmut Kopka (Addison Wesley) that contained a chapter about musicTeX and stated that it was no problem for the author, an absolute layman in musics, to typeset music with this program. Of course, Kopka is a TeXpert, but it was certainly not an awesome job for me either because I was already familiar with TeX. In my humble opinion, the whole sentence is obsolete. Can anyone tell me why it is untouchable? Christof ___ TeX-music mailing list TeX-music@icking-music-archive.org http://icking-music-archive.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [TeX-music] Kuykens's warning, history of MusiXTeX
In my humble opinion, the whole sentence is obsolete. Can anyone tell me why it is untouchable? What's about replacing/completing it by an advice to use the preprocessors and presenting the manual more as a sort of technical reference to the musixTeX internals, being only one (of course very important) part the whole game? ___ TeX-music mailing list TeX-music@icking-music-archive.org http://icking-music-archive.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [TeX-music] Kuykens's warning, history of MusiXTeX
On Mon, 10 Jul 2006, Christof Biebricher wrote: [...] . Of course, Kopka is a TeXpert, but it was certainly not an awesome job for me either because I was already familiar with TeX. In my humble opinion, the whole sentence is obsolete. Can anyone tell me why it is untouchable? When a person familiar with Word, Powerpoint, or Finale, or other WYSIthingy stuff sees me making corrections in a MusiXTeX file after he pointed out errors in my score, his face becomes green :-) Has anybody a similar experience? I doubt things would be different with PMX. Jean-Pierre Coulon [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ TeX-music mailing list TeX-music@icking-music-archive.org http://icking-music-archive.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [TeX-music] Kuykens's warning, history of MusiXTeX
On Mon, 10 Jul 2006, Jean-Pierre Coulon wrote: When a person familiar with Word, Powerpoint, or Finale, or other WYSIthingy stuff sees me making corrections in a MusiXTeX file after he pointed out errors in my score, his face becomes green :-) Has anybody a similar experience? I doubt things would be different with PMX. Things _are_ different with PMX and M-Tx. The main point is that many musicians can read a simple standard choral piece and hear the notes nearly as well as if they would have a score. The nomenclature is self-evident. If it comes to complicated scores; well, that needs of course learning and experience. Still missing are help files that let one look up the syntax. I have written one for my editor, but everyone uses a different editor... Christof ___ TeX-music mailing list TeX-music@icking-music-archive.org http://icking-music-archive.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
Re: [TeX-music] Kuykens's warning, history of MusiXTeX
When a person familiar with Word, Powerpoint, or Finale, or other WYSIthingy stuff sees me making corrections in a MusiXTeX file after he pointed out errors in my score, his face becomes green :-) Has anybody a similar experience? I doubt things would be different with PMX. The point should be encouraging for PMX/MTX in favor of musixtex, not discouraging from musixtex and friends in general (someone who has decided to give musixtex a try would not get a green face, I'm quite sure, because he most probably already uses tex and knows how to handle these kind of files with their syntax). Quite often we have beginner's questions about musixtex on the list and the standard advice is did you consider using...? Pointing that out at a prominent position in the musixtex manual would help. bernhard ___ TeX-music mailing list TeX-music@icking-music-archive.org http://icking-music-archive.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
