Re: musicxml2ly

[Reinhold Kainhofer]

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Am Mittwoch, 26. November 2008 schrieb Martin Tarenskeen:
> So let's not drop MusicXML support, even we don't like the legal issues
> around it.

Okay, sorry if I confused you with legal arguments. I suppose, I have to 
clarify this: 
The MusicXML "specification" IS absolutely free to use, with no legal strings 
attached (they use the same license for the DTDs / XML Schemas than the W3C 
for the HTML spec).

The only (non-legal) problem is that there is no proper suite of test files 
available. The sample files that Recordare provides are showcases to show off 
the potential of MusicXML and they are taken from Recordare's online shop of 
scores, so they don't want to make those files absolutely free. Some of the 
files are even provided directly from some living authors, so Recordare does 
not even have the authority to make those files absolutely free, since the 
contents are still protected by copyright law.

However, our MusicXML testsuite for musicxml2ly, which I'm building, is 
supposed to become some sort of non-official complete suite of MusicXML test 
files, which are freely available.

> I was always astonished about Dolets and Finales politics in that after a
> time you had to
> purchase the additional licence. But now I understand.

The thing is that the MusicXML plugin and the specs are not created by the 
same company that produces Finale. Finale includes a free version of the 
Dolet, which suffices for most uses, though. Of course, Recordare, who make 
the MusicXML plugins for Finale and Sibelius also need to make money, so they 
want to sell their extended plugins, too. That's understandable and should 
not be held against them. 
They provide really great support for MusicXML questions, too.

MusicXML is not perfect, of course, but it's the best and most-supported 
exchange format that is available, so it's definitely the way to go.

Cheers,
Reinhold
- -- 
- ------------------------------------------------------------------
Reinhold Kainhofer, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
email: address@hidden, http://reinhold.kainhofer.com/
 * Financial and Actuarial Mathematics, TU Wien, http://www.fam.tuwien.ac.at/
 * K Desktop Environment, http://www.kde.org, KOrganizer maintainer
 * Chorvereinigung "Jung-Wien", http://www.jung-wien.at/
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