Re: No midi?

[Jan Nieuwenhuizen]

charles <address@hidden> writes:

[Hoping I'm not feeding a troll...]

> Is there an absolute need for the midi interface in Lilypond?

A need for whom/for what?

> Is the spacing of its output totally dependant on being midi functional?

The engraving and performance output are independent.  Have you used
LilyPond at all?  You'll notice that the input gets reinterpreted for
midi output:

    11:09:51 address@hidden:~/usr/src/lilypond$ lilypond input/example-1.ly
    GNU LilyPond 1.5.28
    Now processing: `input/example-1.ly'
    Parsing...
    Interpreting music...[3]
    Preprocessing elements...
    Calculating column positions...
    paper output to `example-1.tex'...

    Interpreting music...
    MIDI output to `example-1.midi'...
    Track ...

> Could Lilypond be ported without the midi function or are there historic
> versions without midi?

Ported to what platform?  The midi output writes to a file; you won't
have midi-specific problems when porting LilyPond.  If you can get
Guile ported to your platform, porting LilyPond will be no problem at
all.

> What I would really like to see is a true music notation program
> that could easily notate polyphony, and have flexibility in note and
> raster spacing.

You're describing LilyPond here? :-)

> It seems to me that the biggest hurdle in the implimentation of a
> versitile computer notation device has always been the need to make
> it make noise!

Well, if you believe so,

> I have recently started to code in Linux and would like to try working
> with some existing music notation source to make it graphically fast and
> publication friendly.
> What I would like to try is to impliment a real time out for the
> graphics functions of a notation system in Linux.

... good luck to you.

> Its really hard to write input to a program if you must wait to see its
> compilation.

That very much depends on what you're doing, ...

> I agree that a button based gui system is far fetched in music notation.
> 
> A more realistic method would be a command line in conjuntion with a
> reasonable, simple X gui.
> Noteedit is a good start but is again too dependent upon midi, and will
> no dought fall flat with effective notation,
> like all but the most expensive commercial software.

The most used notation software for publishing music seems to be
SCORE, which has no GUI.  Composing a piece, and getting it ready for
publishing are two really different tasks.  It would be nice if they
could be combined, but in practice, they are not.  Using LilyPond as a
composing tool is probably not very useful.

> I have no burning need to hear a midi rendition of that which I write.
> I am also sure that composers and music teachers that have tonal vision
> are insulted by the  sounds produced
> by a so called sound card. Thats why they are so dedicated to Mac.
> Its notation software and devices have always lead the way,

Ah, crap.  Music publishers don't use Macs.

> and real musicians use more than just midi to interface with it.

> Any suggestions on how to impliment a real time command line interface
> that could work with a notation display would be appreciated.

Same over here.  We do have some vague thoughts on this.

> Malloc might be a problem as it will undoughtedly require some heavy
> forwhiles.
> I am debating using only c++  for this reason.
> No dought a separate instant  enter command after each notation element
> will be necessary.
> The input command launguage will need revision as Lilyponds source seems
> heavily coded in C,
> so it might be too long a project.
> There is a source available in c++  for an old Win 3.1 hack called
> Muzika.
> It looks interesting as it always had trouble implimenting midi, but no
> trouble diplaying notation.
> Guess I'll take a whack at both.
> Slash and burn or gentle modification, perhaps a little of both and a
> lot of new thinking might work.

I'm not sure if I understand any of this.
Greetings,

Jan.

-- 
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <address@hidden> | GNU LilyPond - The music typesetter
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jantien       | http://www.lilypond.org