Re: major feature request (tablature)

[Danalute]

Carl D. Sorensen wrote:
> 
> I can't speak for the whole development team, but I suspect that nobody on
> the team is going to run out and implement ...
> 

I am willing to do my part; I think it is reasonable for me to hope to have
your good advice and counsel.


Carl D. Sorensen wrote:
> 
> I would recommend that you first focus on the printed results.  
> 

chicken and egg problem; having parsed data that causes no output is not an
issue I would hope.

What I see as input would be a stream of {flagdur, {fretglyph-list}} which
is interpreted in the context of associative arrays mapping flag and fret
input glyphs to display glyphs from a specified font and assoicated musical
semantics.

Sorry, I begin with goals then work up data structures and move on to
algorythms and code.


Carl D. Sorensen wrote:
> 
> LilyPond currently has support for frets and strings, so the raw material
> necessary to define these glyphs and courses is available.  That's good
> news.
> 

Bass course handling is perhaps a bit peculiar, as the glyphlist might be
ordered arbitrarily and the midi sequance can also be arbitrary.


Carl D. Sorensen wrote:
> 
> 
> Based on your words, I can't construct the written music.  A scan of such
> notation, or a link to such notation on the web, would help tremendously.
> 

Excellent lengthy articles 'Tablature', 'Notation' in _Groves New Dictionary
of Music and Musicians_, 26vv (music librarys, some local librarys; online
if one has paid Oxford for access).

Try the Wiki articles on Notation and Tablature.

See 
http://wa4.images.onesite.com/vokaria.onesite.com/large/lachrimaeclipped.jpg?v=156150
this  hand-written EPSF for a mixed staff using PS.  This is french
tablature, flags above, top row of fretglyphs is highest pitched course on
instrument, letters designate fret from sequence
(a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,o,p...) where a = open.  Most fretted instruments
had short necks and dont exhaust that sequence, the cittern and some
oriental lutes (eg saz) have 18 or more fret positions (saz is sometimes
fretless)

Compare that to  http://phys.uri.edu/~nigh/tab-in-lily2.pdf this lilypond
tab ; not bad for modern guitar tab, but also not at all the same.  Note
that this latter has four voices, 1 and 3 have flag stems originating from
the fretglyph, too close.  voices 2 and 4 have an offset seperating the
fretglyphs, this improves legibility, but is extra work and not intuitive
(issue for docs).


Carl D. Sorensen wrote:
> 
> 
> We already have the table of open course pitches in LilyPond, it's called
> StringTunings.
> 

Good, that should handle stoped courses nicely.  Unfortunately the
convention for indicating non-stoped bass courses may require an extension
to it.  More on that anon.


Carl D. Sorensen wrote:
> 
> 
> it would seem to me to be more robust to enter fret, course, and
> duration.  But, as I mentioned earlier, input syntax should be determined
> and coded only *after* the output is in place.
> 

Carl, sounds as if you have had issues on this sequence in the past.  

I dont want to spend lots of effort arguing the point, I just want to point
out that without data entry it will be cumbersome to enter test data to
excercise the printing engine.

What is needed as input data is obvious and proven; I see absolutely no
reason not to design and code it, working with a temporary fork of the
parser.


Carl D. Sorensen wrote:
> 
> Let me be the first to
> welcome you to the development team.  We'd love to help you as you work
> to improve LilyPond's tablature support.
> 

Thanks, it will be a matter of weeks before I can leap in to the center of
the pond; for now I am limited to a 4Mb flash drive used at the library
while it is open to dig into source code and docs, in a couple weeks I hope
to have mac g3 up and running to code and compile.

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