Subject: [linux-audio-dev] Perl module for GUIDO music notation
From: Karl Ward (karlward_AT_columbia.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 22 2001 - 21:08:44 EET
Hi everyone. I'm nearing completion a Perl module that can read,
manipulate, and write GUIDO score files. For more info on GUIDO, visit:
http://www.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/AFS/GUIDO/
I wrote this module because of the many times I have wanted to use both Perl
and full music notation syntax in my computer music. Now that RTcmix has a
Perl interface (visit http://www.people.virginia.edu/~djt7p/Cmix/Cmix.html
for info on RTcmix), this module should prove especially useful in working
with computer music. Maybe that's just my Columbia Univ. bias (since RTcmix
was partially developed here).
This is alpha software, it's not finished (it only parses, but that's the
hard part) and won't be finished for a few more days at the earliest. I'm
posting here because I'd like some opinions on implementation details.
First, I originally considered using the music notation language abc:
http://www.gre.ac.uk/~c.walshaw/abc/
But I decided to use GUIDO because I feel it is better engineered.
Unfortunately, it seems the GUIDO developers either don't respond to email
or are not working on GUIDO right now, so I can't ask them for advice.
The main question is, should I go out of my way to extract generic
subroutines and internal representations that would be useful for any
notation language (abc, GUIDO, MusiXML) and place those in a Perl module
called Music::Notation, leaving the specifics in Music::Notation::GUIDO ?
This might be useful, but would be time-consuming and would probably delay
my work on the GUIDO part considerably. If any of you are Perl hackers, I'd
like for you to take a look at my code and tell me what you think. An alpha
version of the code is available at
http://www.columbia.edu/~karlward/GUIDO.tar
It may be that a generic Music::Notation module wouldn't be of much use,
because each music notation language has different parameters and such. I'm
afraid that creating a generic Music::Notation module, or to be really
generic, a Music module, might be the equivalent of creating yet another new
representational scheme for music (i.e. reinventing the wheel). There was
some brief discussion of doing this a while back (1998):
http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/modules/1998-11/msg00127.html
but it appears that nothing ever came of it.
Thanks for listening. All you Perl hackers let me know what you think at
karlward_AT_columbia.edu.
-k
-- "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." -Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
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