Gregory Dyke wrote:
> Now 30% faster.
>
> Best regards
>
> Greg

Great job, Gregory.
Go on! ;-)

Hudson

On Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:22:11 +0100
Gregory Dyke <gregdyke@...> wrote:

> About two years ago I wanted to create an in-browser abc
> renderer/editor. About a month ago, a new library re-kindled the idea
> and I now have the very first version to show:
>
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/223827/abcjs/abctext.html

Hello Gregory,

I tried it with Opera 10.10 on Linux 2.6.32-rc8 amd64, and I get the
error:
	 <dl.dropbox.com>
	 [object Object] failed
	 T:  expected/^\n/

Best regards.

--
Ken ar c'hentañ |       ** Breizh ha Linux atav! **
Jef  |  http://moinejf.free.fr/

can anyone help me display K: (the key signature) as text, in the print format? 
For example, with K:Ador, I would like to display that at the top of the print,
near the title.

many thanks
Chris

John Walsh wrote:
> Hi,
>
>  It strikes me that the spreadsheet could have a column for old,
> outdated and deprecated notation, simply so that new programs can ignore
> it without need of error warnings. I am thinking of some things from early
> versions of abc2mtex.  Let me list a couple that come to mind.  [...]

Good remarks, John.

>  Also, one useful detail about rolls.  Most abc users denote them
> with the twiddle, i.e. the turn sign, but many Irish musicians put
> Breathnach's roll sign over the note. It looks a bit like a fermata sign
> without the dot. This is available in abcm2ps (Thanks, Jef!) as a compile
> time option. (DECO_IS_ROLL=1. By the way, does anyone know if this is
> available via a format file or in another way?) Might be worthwhile to
> mention this somewhere in the spreadsheet, tho I don't know exactly where
> it should go. [...]

Unfortunately there is no way (yet) to declare U:~=roll in format files.
Two workarounds are: (1) concatenate the ABC files preceded of a file
which  defines the roll; or (2) use abcpp to #include roll.abc.

Hudson




--- (file roll.abc) ---

U: ~ = roll


--- let a blank line at file end (roll.abc [end]) ---




%--- (file test.abc) ---

X:1
T:~ is roll
K:C
~cde~d ~C2c2 |

%--- (test.abc [end]) ---



cat roll.abc test.abc | abcm2ps -O test.ps -

Hi,

	 It strikes me that the spreadsheet could have a column for old,
outdated and deprecated notation, simply so that new programs can ignore
it without need of error warnings. I am thinking of some things from early
versions of abc2mtex.  Let me list a couple that come to mind.

	 o Lines beginning with a backslash.  (In abc2mtex, such a line was
copied verbatim into the output file.  It allowed one to write TeX code
directly in the abc file, and was quite useful.  Abcm2ps knows about this,
and properly ignores such lines.)

	 o Lines ending in * or **.  This told abc2mtex to line-break and
right-justify.

	 o Use of plus signs to delimit chords, e.g. +GBd+ for a chord.
(Happily replaced by [GBd])

	 o Use of ampersands as tab markers.  (This was a quick-and-dirty
way to get multiple-staff music, but it's hard to troubleshoot, and
probably wasn't used much.)

	 o  And of course, there is abcwin's use of ! to force a
line-break.  But everyone knows that one.

I'm sure there are lots more.  A couple of further remarks.

	 Abcm2ps has a decoration feature which allows one to write
post-script code for custom decorations. This should be mentioned
somewhere. (This overlaps a lot with the macro feature of abc2mtex, which
allowed one to write TeX macros directly and attach them to one of the
symbols H--Z. I suppose this feature is only relevant for something based
on a fairly flexible graphics language, like TeX and PostScript, but when
it's available, it's useful.)

	 Also, one useful detail about rolls.  Most abc users denote them
with the twiddle, i.e. the turn sign, but many Irish musicians put
Breathnach's roll sign over the note. It looks a bit like a fermata sign
without the dot. This is available in abcm2ps (Thanks, Jef!) as a compile
time option. (DECO_IS_ROLL=1. By the way, does anyone know if this is
available via a format file or in another way?) Might be worthwhile to
mention this somewhere in the spreadsheet, tho I don't know exactly where
it should go.

Cheers,
John Walsh

thank you Wil,
C



--- In abcusers@yahoogroups.com, Wil Macaulay <wil.macaulay@...> wrote:
>
> Deprecated syntax for chords.  Replace with [A3c3]
>
> wil
>
> On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 8:30 PM, chrisskudder <chrisskudder@...>wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > another newbie question- I'm stumped on the syntax below- specifically the
> > "+A3c3+" part.
> >
> > Any hints?
> > thanks in advance,
> > Chris
> >
> > mazurka vecchia:
> > e|ed Bd Gd|dc+A3c3+d|dc Ac Fc|+ce++Bd+ +B3d3+e|\
> > ed Bd Gd|dc+A3c3+d/e/|fe dc B/c/B/A/|Gz+B3d3g3+:|
> >
> > comes from this url:
> > http://members.yline.com/~zeiler1/abc/czmaz.abc
> >
> >
> >
>

another newbie question- I'm stumped on the syntax below- specifically the
"+A3c3+" part.

Any hints?
thanks in advance,
Chris

mazurka vecchia:
e|ed Bd Gd|dc+A3c3+d|dc Ac Fc|+ce++Bd+ +B3d3+e|\
ed Bd Gd|dc+A3c3+d/e/|fe dc B/c/B/A/|Gz+B3d3g3+:|

comes from this url:
http://members.yline.com/~zeiler1/abc/czmaz.abc

thank you very much Calum- extremely helpful.  I got ABCm2ps working and got an
OUT.ps file.  I got a load of errors and warnings so looks like I'll need to dig
into those and clean the abc file. Do you know what an "underfull" warning is?
Is that just a staff not going all the way to the right margin?  (Sounds
non-critical, but how does one fix that?)

I opened the out.ps file with GhostView. Is that ps2pdf, or is there another way
I should set it up on my system?

Another question... is there a way using the %% commands that I can set up a
customized layout- like adding R: or K: or other info fields to the header?

And FWIW, on ABCedit...
after deleting a "custom layout" ***.txt file in ABCtemp directory, ABCedit will
print a searchable file, but it is nowhere near as nice as the ABCm2ps output. 
I had set up an Arial font in that custom layout, and I read somewhere that
PDF's can only recognize like 14 fonts as text.  Arial might be a font that
turns into a bitmap in a PDF.

sorry for a load of newbie questions but thanks very much for your help so far,
and in advance for anything further!
Chris

--- In abcusers@yahoogroups.com, Calum Galleitch <abc@...> wrote:
>
Using abcm2ps -> ps2pdf and Gnome's built in document viewer I am able to search
all text in the PDF just fine, including annotations within the tune.
>
You don't have a option set somewhere to convert all text to graphics
primitives, do you?
>
> Cheers,
> Calum

chrisskudder wrote:
I'm a newbie, on a PC. I'm looking to create a text-searchable PDF tunebook from
a file with many tunes. Like, PDF reader can search the titles by text. I have
had mixed success...
- ABCJ does it well, but it error's out when it encounters a chord change
followed by a triplet.
- ABCedit seems to do it sometimes- can't figure out how to do it
reliably. 'Breaks' somehow related to default layout.
- ABCNavigator works, but you have to add tunes manually to print list-- and
there's hundreds in this file. Also the output isn't as visually nice as
ABCedit.
Appreciate any ideas, pointers, etc

Hi.

I have started to write a program to convert ABC code from a file into
PMW input notation. abc2pmw uses Jean-François Moine's tclabc library to
parse/interpret ABC.

PMW (Philip's Music Writer) is a program for music typesetting by Philip
Hazel. In a simple comparison with abcm2ps, PMW allows control of the
position/format/size of any item, but it does not try to avoid several
clashes automatically. By the other hand, abcm2ps does automatic
placement of items, avoiding superposition of symbols, but it does not
allow individual user control on the positions of many items.

There is a lot of things to do in abc2pmw (in special, handle text
strings and decorations, and break beams), anyway it already can be
useful to convert simple melodies. Also, there is no still selection of
tunes: it just convert all the (first 50) tunes from the input file(s).

abc2pmw
http://hudsonlacerda.webs.com/

tclabc
http://moinejf.free.fr/

PMW
http://www.quercite.com/pmw.html

Cheers,
Hudson

chrisskudder wrote:
> I'm a newbie, on a PC.  I'm looking to create a text-searchable PDF tunebook
from a file with many tunes.  Like, PDF reader can search the titles by text.  I
have had mixed success...
> - ABCJ does it well, but it error's out when it encounters a chord change
followed by a triplet.
> - ABCedit seems to do it sometimes- can't figure out how to do it reliably. 
'Breaks' somehow related to default layout.
> - ABCNavigator works, but you have to add tunes manually to print list-- and
there's hundreds in this file.  Also the output isn't as visually nice as
ABCedit.
>
> Appreciate any ideas, pointers, etc

Which items should be searchable? Title, composer, lyrics?

For titles and composers you could generate the PDF with LaTeX, using
abc.sty to select and insert the tunes (if you can use LaTeX):
http://abcplus.sourceforge.net/#abclatex

Otherwise, you could try to insert *hyperlinks* by adding some "pdfmark"
code to the PostScript before converting it to PDF. I never tried that
(pdfmark is not PS standard), but there are examples around:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/programming-9/postscript-hyperlinks-5747\
01/
I cannot try it right now, but I may look at it in 2 or 3 days. I will
see if it can do internal links in a file.

Hudson

I'm a newbie, on a PC.  I'm looking to create a text-searchable PDF tunebook
from a file with many tunes.  Like, PDF reader can search the titles by text.  I
have had mixed success...
- ABCJ does it well, but it error's out when it encounters a chord change
followed by a triplet.
- ABCedit seems to do it sometimes- can't figure out how to do it reliably. 
'Breaks' somehow related to default layout.
- ABCNavigator works, but you have to add tunes manually to print list-- and
there's hundreds in this file.  Also the output isn't as visually nice as
ABCedit.

Appreciate any ideas, pointers, etc

--- In abcusers@yahoogroups.com, Hudson Flávio Meneses Lacerda <hfmlacerda@...>
wrote:

> I noticed that the stemless notes are horizontally spaced as if the
> stems were visible. Thus they look unevenly spaced.
>
> Forcing the stem direction improves the output:
>

Thanks for that suggestion. I love these little touches that improve the visual
appearance of the music. (Most of my friends think I'm weird to care about such
details, and they maintain that the only thing of importance is to stick the
right notes on the page.)

Cheers

Steve

Jean-Francois Moine wrote:
> Yes, there is a problem. I will have a look at it. Meanwhile, putting
> an empty title solves the problem: [...]

I noticed that the stemless notes are horizontally spaced as if the
stems were visible. Thus they look unevenly spaced.

Forcing the stem direction improves the output:

....
%%score 4
V:4 stem=up
c0 c0 A0 G0 F0 G0 A0 G0 HF0|
....

--- In abcusers@yahoogroups.com, Jean-Francois Moine <moinejf@...> wrote:

> Yes, there is a problem. I will have a look at it. Meanwhile, putting an empty
title solves the problem

Wow, I didn't realise I'd get a reply from Jean-Francois himself :-)

Many thanks for the work-around. This seems to work OK, and it also seems to
help with being able to reset bar numbering for each section (which is what I
wanted to do).

By the way, thanks also for the abcm2ps software. I have been using it to
produce parts and scores for several amateur music groups and several people
have asked me if I'm using Sibelius! They can't believe that such beautiful
music can be produced by free software.

Cheers

Steve

On Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:02:56 -0000
"steve.m.west@..." <steve.m.west@...> wrote:

> Sorry to bombard this group with my problems, but....
>
> I'm trying to set a score which begins with a small section of
> plainsong (which I'd like to print without a time or key signature),
> followed by a polyphonic section. I had assumed that I could do this
> by writing two different %%score directives, one for the plainsong
> and one for the polyphony. My problem is that I can't seem to get a
> time signature to print in the polyphonic section. I'm putting M:none
> in the header, so that there is no time signature for the plainsong,
> then putting inline [M:4/2] in each of the parts of the polyphony. I
> expected this to print a time signature at the beginning of each
> part, but it doesn't (using abcm2ps 5.9.6).
>
> I'm not sure if this is some really obscure problem, or if I've just
> made some really stupid mistake. Any suggestions please? (I include a
> cut-down version of my file below).

Hello Steve,

Yes, there is a problem. I will have a look at it. Meanwhile, putting
an empty title solves the problem:

X:1
T:Mass for three voices
T:Gloria in excelsis
C:William Byrd (c.1540-1623)
%%measurenb 1
%%measurefirst 0
L:1/4
M:none
K:C
%%score 4
V:4
c0 c0 A0 G0 F0 G0 A0 G0 HF0|
%-- empty title to restart the generation --
T:
%%score [1 2 3]
V:1 name=Cantus clef=treble
[L:1/2][K:F][M:4/2]A3 A | G B A F | A>A G2 |
V:2 name=Tenor clef=treble-8 octave=-1
[L:1/2][K:F][M:4/2]c3 c | c d c2 | c f>f e |
V:3 name=Bassus clef=treble-8 octave=-1
[L:1/2][K:F][M:4/2]F3 F |E D F2| z F c>c |

Cheers.

--
Ken ar c'hentañ |       ** Breizh ha Linux atav! **
Jef  |  http://moinejf.free.fr/

Sorry to bombard this group with my problems, but....

I'm trying to set a score which begins with a small section of plainsong (which
I'd like to print without a time or key signature), followed by a polyphonic
section. I had assumed that I could do this by writing two different %%score
directives, one for the plainsong and one for the polyphony. My problem is that
I can't seem to get a time signature to print in the polyphonic section. I'm
putting M:none in the header, so that there is no time signature for the
plainsong, then putting inline [M:4/2] in each of the parts of the polyphony. I
expected this to print a time signature at the beginning of each part, but it
doesn't (using abcm2ps 5.9.6).

I'm not sure if this is some really obscure problem, or if I've just made some
really stupid mistake. Any suggestions please? (I include a cut-down version of
my file below).

Thanks in advance

Steve

X:1
T:Mass for three voices
T:Gloria in excelsis
C:William Byrd (c.1540-1623)
%%measurenb 1
%%measurefirst 0
L:1/4
M:none
K:C
%%score 4
V:4
c0 c0 A0 G0 F0 G0 A0 G0 HF0|
%%score [1 2 3]
V:1 name=Cantus clef=treble
[L:1/2][K:F][M:4/2]A3 A | G B A F | A>A G2 |
V:2 name=Tenor clef=treble-8 octave=-1
[L:1/2][K:F][M:4/2]c3 c | c d c2 | c f>f e |
V:3 name=Bassus clef=treble-8 octave=-1
[L:1/2][K:F][M:4/2]F3 F |E D F2| z F c>c |

Hi Hudson

Thanks for the reply. This does exactly what I want! I had tried to do something
else with annotations, a long time ago, and never got them to work properly, so
had sort of forgotten about them!

Thanks again

Steve

steve.m.west@... wrote:
> Hi everyone.
>
> Is there any way in ABC to put cautionary accidentals in front of
> notes? [...]

Hi Steve,

You may use annotations. They are written between double quotes, like
guitar chords, but annotations start with a positioning mark > < ^_ or
@x,y :

X:1
K:Dm
[V:1] y"<(\#)"cde "@-3.5,-16 \204"fgf
[V:2 merge] "<(\b)    "BAG FED

(Spacers y may be needed to avoid clashes.)

See:
http://abc.sourceforge.net/standard/abc2-draft.html#Annotations
http://abc.sourceforge.net/standard/abc2-draft.html#Spacer
Section 3.7 and 2.3 of ABC Plus Guide:
http://abcplus.sourceforge.net/#ABCGuide

Hudson

Hi everyone.

Is there any way in ABC to put cautionary accidentals in front of notes? These
are accidentals in parentheses, to remind the player that they should be playing
the note sharp, flat or whatever. The only options that I have come up with are
either just putting a regular accidental sign before the note (which can be
confusing) or else subverting the guitar chord system, by writing something like
"(#)" (including the quote marks) in front of a note, which puts an accidental
in parentheses above the stave. This latter approach works quite well for single
line music, but is not much help if there are two voices on the stave.

Is there any better way of doing this?

Thanks

Steve

> Then you have uploaded the wrong file... because the only
> changes from  my original file are those I have listed.

Hah! You're certainly right. Here's the file I meant to upload. Looks like the
encoding was preserved this time. If not, copy and paste the html into a new
file and save with ISO Latin 1 encoding.

Until Nov 17, 2009: https://www.yousendit.com/download/TzY3MWZJQTZJMHQzZUE9PQ
Longer, with ads: http://www.sendspace.com/file/wycwvt


> No, my idea is to have independent HTML files for _offline_
>reading. I don't know nothing of CSS, and nearly nothing of HTML >either...
thus I use simple formatting.

> I could combine <pre> with <blockquote> or <dd> in
> a future release of the files.

CSS is very easy, and offline-friendly. Of course I'm happy with whatever
formatting you choose - sorry if I sound like I'm not. The nice thing about
formatting with CSS is it lets you separate the formatting file from the content
file (exactly like having an abc and an fmt), so that the html isn't clogged
with formatting.

Everyone: Hope this doesn't seem too off-topic, but here's a very quick intro to
CSS as it would be used here. (Hudson: really, I promise I don't mean you should
do this — just including it for general knowledge, and so everyone knows what
I'm talking about).

1) Tell the html to refer to a css file
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="YOURCSSFILE.css">
   (For correctly-formatted offline viewing, the user will have to have the css
file on their computer - but what's another tiny file. And f you use Firefox,
and maybe other browsers, to save a "complete webpage" it automatically saves
the css file.)

or include css in the html
    <html>
      <head>
        <title> title </title>
        <style type="text/css">
           CSS WILL GO HERE
        </style>
      </head>
      <body>…

2) Format
     Background color (will override anything in <body bgcolor>) and bold
descriptions
     BODY {
           background-color: ffffaa;
           font-weight: bold;}
     Italicized h1,
        H1 {font-style:italic;}
     Not-bold code
        pre {font-weight: normal;}

Hi Henry,

henrygroups wrote:
>> Are you writting a script for that?
>
> I hadn't looked at the scripts at all — didn't realize that's how you
> were doing it.

The manual part is analysing the diff output from a pair of abcm2ps
source code versions (syms.c, in this case), and updating the
_description_ of the operators (basically, I check if its syntax did not
change). All the remaining tasks (including getting the operators
_definitions_ from a PS file) are automatic.

That automatic process lets a few "barbs" (look at /showerror and you
will see a line which is not part of its definition).

>
>> What is an alphabetized version?
> The alphabetized version lists the operators alphabetically: !,
> accent, accfont, annshow, ... , wedge, wln, xymove instead of !,
> bdef, T, M, RM, ...

Then you have uploaded the wrong file... because the only changes from
my original file are those I have listed.

(The gzip'ed file name is in UTF-8, that could be guided the implicit
encoding conversion.)

>
> Had you thought of using css to format the <pre> tags?

No, my idea is to have independent HTML files for _offline_ reading. I
don't know nothing of CSS, and nearly nothing of HTML either... thus I
use simple formatting.

> In this case it could be useful for automated indenting pre {
> text-indent: <indentation>px } (for a basic example of css in action
> —and my inspiration for the cross-ref links— see
> http://www.tailrecursive.org/postscript/operators.html )

I could combine <pre> with <blockquote> or <dd> in a future release of
the files.

If I find time and willingness, I shall write a new script to generate
the files. As you pointed, there are useful things to do: sorting,
formatting, cross-references, and maybe more output formats (LaTeX).

That would enable more people to update the formatted abcm2ps documentation.

Thanks,
Hudson