Changes - abc2ps - A powerful sheet setting tool using the simple abc notation
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Changes (19904B)
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1
2 17.03.99 Experimentally changed parsing so that the end of the header
3 comes at the first music or V: line.
4
5 Note: according to the abc specs, the header ends with the K: line.
6 However, nobody seems aware of this. For multistave music it is
7 important exactly where the header ends, because info fields
8 in the body of the music (outside the header) only operate on
9 the current voice. Info fields in the header operate on all
10 the voices.
11
12 16.03.99 Fixed various reported bugs.
13
14 25.01.99 Support fermata over a rest.
15
16 ----- Version 1.3.3 -----
17
18
19 10.12.98 New flag: -I writes the contents and page numbers to file Ind.ps.
20
21
22 08.12.98 Fixed bug: transposing was wrong for clef changes.
23
24
25 ----- Version 1.3.2 -----
26
27 10.08.98 Added new codes for accents (cf. sample.abc):
28 k: Accent which looks like >
29 K: Accent which looks like an upside-down V.
30
31
32 05.08.98 Added bar numbering and bar labels.
33
34 Bar numbers:
35 to switch on bar numbering, use flag -k
36 where: -k 1 numbers every bar
37 -k 5 numbers every fifth bar, etc.
38 -k 0 numbers the first bar in every staff.
39 or, use the equivalent pseudocomment %%barnumbers <number>.
40 (Note: -k was used because it sounds a bit like "count".)
41
42 The program counts through the bars automatically, trying
43 to do the right thing at first and second endings. Namely:
44 it remembers the bar number at the start of the first ending,
45 then resets to that value at the start of the second ending.
46 So, if there is a tune with 2x8 measures with first and second
47 endings after the first 8 bars, we still end up with 16 bars
48 in total.
49 Within one tune, bar numbers are counted through over parts
50 boundaries. However, if a T: title appears inside a tune,
51 the bar number is reset to 1. You can use an empty T:
52 line to reset the bar number without actually writing a title.
53
54
55 Bar labels:
56 this is intended for large letters A, B, C...
57 to mark specific points in the music. They are coded by
58 using a syntax similar to guitarchords, but placed before
59 a bar line instead of a note or rest, e.g.:
60 | abcd "A"| ABCD |
61 places the letter A over the second bar line.
62 Just in case somebody wants a label on the first bar
63 (which is often not preceded by a bar line), a new
64 symbol [|] was introduced for an "invisible" bar line.
65
66
67 Fonts for bar numbers and bar labels:
68 These can be set in the usual way with the two pseudocomments
69 %%barnumberfont and %%barlabelfont.
70
71 In printed music, the bar numbers are often made more visible
72 by putting a box around them. This is now also possible.
73 In fact, a box can be put around most bits of text by
74 adding the word "box" to the font specification, e.g.:
75
76 %%barnumberfont Times-Italic 11 box
77
78 This can be done for the title, guitarchords, vocals, etc.
79 To switch on the box without changing the font style and/or size,
80 the character * can be used, as in:
81
82 %%titlefont * * box
83
84
85 A reminder: to see all the style specifications use 'abc2ps -H'
86 (for the standard format) or 'abc2ps -PH' (pretty2 format).
87 This gives a list suitable for placing in a .fmt file.
88 To modify settings for a single tune only, place the
89 pseudocomments after the 'T:' lines and before the 'K:' line
90 in the tune header.
91
92
93 Examples: look at celloprelude.abc for examples of bar numbers
94 and bar labels. Try 'abc2ps -maxv 8 -k0 bran5' or
95 'abc2ps -k0 bach' to see bar numbers at the start of
96 the line, as is often used for scores.
97
98
99
100 20.07.98 Fixed bug overwriting when lvoiceid too short.
101
102 ----- Version 1.3.1 -----
103
104 12.07.98 A number of enhancements to format multi-stave music nicely.
105 For examples, see files trio.abc bran5.abc voices.abc bach.abc.
106
107 In detail: indentation of the first staff, labels for voices,
108 braces and brackets to group voices, and some additional
109 parameters in the V: line to control the output.
110
111 As before, the syntax of the V: line is
112
113 V: <label> <par1>=<value1> <par2>=<value2> ...
114
115 where <label> is used to switch to the voice in later V: lines.
116 Each <par>=<value> pair sets one parameter for the current voice.
117 There are now alternate short version of the parameter names.
118
119
120 List of the parameters allowed in a V: line:
121
122 parm short example and description
123 ----------------------------------------
124
125 name nm nm=Violin I"
126 This sets the long version of the voice name, to be
127 written before the staves at the start of a piece.
128 If the string contains \\, this is interpreted
129 as a line break and the pieces are writen above
130 each other.
131
132 sname snm snm="Vl. I"
133 Short version of the name, written before
134 subsequent staves.
135
136 clef cl clef=bass
137 Chooses the clef (treble, alto, or bass).
138 It can also be bass+8 and so on.
139
140 staves stv stv=2
141 This is the number of staves (starting from the
142 current one) to connect by tall vertical bar lines.
143
144 brace brc brace=2
145 This is the number of staves (starting from the
146 current one) to be grouped together with a brace.
147 When this option is used, the name defined in the
148 same V: line is written at the center of the brace.
149
150 bracket brk brk=4
151 The number of staves to be grouped together by
152 a bracket. This option does not change the way
153 in which the names are written.
154
155 space spc spc=40
156 This defines or modifies the vertical space between
157 this staff and the one below it. The space can be
158 given in pt (default) or with a unit in the form
159 1cm or 0.4in. Furthermore: if a + or - sign
160 comes after the start of the number, the value
161 is an increment to be added to or subtracted
162 from the default setting.
163
164 gchords gch gch=0
165 This controls whether any guitar chords
166 embedded in the current voice are actually written.
167 True/false are specified as for the %% formats.
168
169 stems stm stems=up
170 This is parsed but not yet used in the program.
171
172
173 New format directives:
174
175 %%voicefont font to write voice names with
176
177 %%indent <dim> amount to indent the first staff.
178 Indentation is done at the start of
179 the piece and after a T: field, but not
180 after a P: field.
181
182 Note: the margin still refers to the left edge of the staff.
183 Therefore, parameters %%leftmargin %%staffwidth %%indent
184 should be adjusted to leave room for the voice names.
185
186
187 New command-line flag:
188
189 The -V flag was redefined to select voices for output.
190 The old function ("show version") was integrated into -h.
191 The format is as in this example:
192
193 abc2ps -o input.abc -V 1-2,4
194
195 This will generate output only for the specified voices.
196 Specifically, a single voice can be extracted.
197
198
199 Other changes:
200
201 For a rest which fills out a complete measure, the symbol
202 for a full rest is drawn in the center of the bar, independent
203 of the the time signature.
204
205 Added K for strong emphasis decoration (upside-down V).
206
207
208
209
210 31.05.98 L: after header but before first voice now sets default length
211 for first voice, named "1".
212
213 12.05.98 Tab interpreted as space in music lines.
214
215 01.04.98 Fixed Q:C=xxx for multi-stave version.
216
217 19.03.98 Run-time allocation for symbols and voices.
218
219
220 ----- Version 1.3.0 -----
221
222 03.03.98 Multi-stave music added.
223
224 To switch to a different voice, use a line starting with 'V:'.
225 An example for the most general form supported now is:
226 V:2 name="Clarinet 2" short="Cl.2" clef=treble stems=down
227 Note that the "2" is a treated as a string, so any single-word
228 identifier can be used instead. Later in the tune,
229 switch to the voice using only
230 V:2
231 The various settings (key, default length, etc) are
232 maintained for each voice separately.
233
234 Guitar chords, first and second endings, and line breaks are
235 taken from the top voice only. Vocals can be set under each
236 voice separately.
237
238 To format the output, two %% format directives were added
239 which determine the staff spacing: %%systaffsep %%systemsep.
240
241 It turned out that the note spacing should be slightly
242 different for multi-stave music. Namely, it is often a good
243 idea to space the notes somewhat more strictly according
244 to their duration than in single-stave music. There is now
245 a new parameter called "strictness" which the user can use
246 to adjust this. For strictness=1, the spacings for notes
247 with short durations is reasonably strictly proportional to
248 their duration. For strictness=0, they are spaced about
249 equally. Good defaults are strictness=0.5 for single-stave
250 music and strictness=0.8 for multistave music.
251 These parameters can be changed with the -X flag or
252 with %% statements in the abc file or in a .fmt file.
253 When using -X, a flag such as -X 0.6 will change both
254 values. To change them separately, use something like
255 -X 0.3,0.7 on the command line.
256
257 As usual, %% directives can be inspected with abc -H
258 and help about flags is obtained with abc -h.
259
260 Files voices.abc and bach.abc have examples for multistave
261 music.
262
263 01.03.98 Changed -d flag to accept incremental changes such as -d-5
264 or -d+5.
265
266 28.12.97 Transposing added. Also double sharp and double flat symbols.
267 To transpose: use flag -t in two possible ways.
268 (1) Specify the new root explicitly using the form
269 -t XX where XX is the new root note. For example:
270 -t C or -t Bb or -t C#
271 This shifts either up or down, depending on which shift is
272 smaller. To force up or down direction, use prefixes ^_ eg.
273 -t ^C or -t _C
274 (2) Specify the number of halftones to shift by in the form
275 -t nn where nn is the number of halftones.
276 For negative shift, use either a sticky argument
277 such as -t-2 or prefix with underscore, eg -t _2.
278
279 In any case: the program first decides how many halftones
280 to shift the pitches by. This number is kept fixed throughout
281 the whole tune. In this way, key changes within the tune
282 are treated properly.
283
284 To obain information about the transposing process, set the
285 verbosity to 3 or 4 (ie: -v 3 or -v 4).
286
287
288 24.12.97 Shift up guitar chords over n-plet brackets.
289
290 15.12.97 Some modifications to extent of 1st and 2nd endings.
291
292 29.11.97 Q: field now prints out tempo denotations.
293 General form is Q: w1 w2 w3.. where each word is either
294 a string in double quotes such as "Andante" or "Bossa Nova"
295 or a tempo denotation such as C or C=120 or 120.
296 Strings are printed directly, denotations are translated
297 to the form note=100. Font is in new format field "tempofont".
298
299 29.11.97 Guitar chords positioned a bit more nicely (centered,
300 except if especially wide).
301
302 29.11.97 Added blank-delimited +8 and -8 as extensions to key specifier.
303 Function: write all notes higher or lower by one octave.
304
305 02.11.97 Words for vocals now centered under each note, looks nicer.
306 Changed left/right spacings to get better positioning for
307 single note in a bar.
308
309 ----- Version 1.2.5 -----
310
311 05.10.97 Added page numbers for flag -N.
312
313 05.10.97 Support for all modes (Wil Macaulay)
314
315 07.08.97 Added "x" for rests which are invisible.
316
317 14.07.97 Slurs and ties within chords improved, for example:
318 [(a(b] [c)d)] slurs a to c, b to d
319 [a-b] [ac] ties a to a
320
321 14.07.97 Grace notes can be before or after guitar chord:
322 "A"{A}Bc and {A}"A"Bc both work.
323
324 06.05.97 Fixed bug which sometimes put stems onto whole notes.
325
326 06.03.97 Begintext lines can start with %%, to permit usage
327 in header fields and avoid conflict with other programs.
328
329 17.02.97 Made txt array global.. avoid stack problems on Mac.
330 Added extra buffer flush at file end.
331
332 15.02.97 C (alto) clef added, invoke with "K: alto"
333
334 10.02.97 Now \- in vocals for '-' without breaking the word.
335 Changed to work even if no 'T:' field.
336 Fixed bug: did not print 'O:' if no 'C:'.
337
338 09.02.97 Added "%%titlecaps" format statement.
339
340 07.02.97 Introduced decoration T for "tr" above a note.
341
342 ----- Version 1.2.4b -----
343
344 06.02.97 New: text, page formats, pseudocomments, bass clef.
345
346 02.02.97 In-line escape sequences now also [..]
347
348 23.01.97 removed "or:" from subtitles.
349
350
351 ----- Version 1.2.3-x1 -----
352
353 26.11 Added aligned vocals under the staff. Example:
354 BA |: "Gm"G2AB|"C7"cd2e|"F"f2fe|"Dm"dA2d|
355 w: Close your eyes and I'll kiss you, to-mor-row I'll miss you; re-
356 "Bb"d2dc|"Gm"B2GF|"Eb"G4-|G2 z2|
357 w:mem-ber I'll al-ways be true._
358 Syntax:
359 Words are given in line starting as w: under music line.
360 Words are aligned one-by-one with the notes.
361 * skips one note.
362 | tabs forward to next bar line.
363 Hyphenations make two syllables, with "-" between them.
364 Underscore draws horizontal line from last word to note.
365 Blanks can be dropped around special chars (* | - _ ).
366
367 19.11 Added bagpipe mode for K:HP.
368 Added landscape orientation for flag -l.
369
370 05.11 Put in some first pseudocomments to format output:
371 %%sep - writes a standard separator
372 %%sep topspace botspace len - custom separator
373 %%newpage - force page break
374 %%text This is a line.. - write a line of text
375 %%vskip xx - add vertical space in cm
376
377 06.10 Added 32nd and 64th rests, 64th notes.
378 Accidentals and grace notes more spaced when room.
379 Correct treatment of slurs at 1st, 2nd endings.
380
381 ----- Version 1.2.2 -----
382
383 22.09 Words like "aza" now under one beam with rest under it.
384 Output "Origin" field in parens together with composer.
385 Added ties between chords.
386
387 20.09 Keysigs such as "3+4/8" "78/8" "7 8/8" allowed.
388 Slopes of beams tuned a bit.
389 Fixed bug in position of tilde over stem.
390 Choose same stem directions on neighbors where reasonable.
391
392 15.09 Small random horizontal shift of notes improve readability,
393 see RANFAC. Adjust internote spacing according to jump in pitch.
394
395 05.08 Consistent handling for word breaks at end of input line.
396
397
398 ----- Version 1.2.1 -----
399
400 28.07 Added W: for words of song.
401 Include notes, discography, transcription in output for -n.
402 Removed bug: ninf=0 messed up usage "abc2ps -h".
403
404 26.07 Fixed: swallowed meter change sometimes.
405
406 21.07 Correct handling of last line of file even if not terminated
407 by a newline character.
408 Some fine-tuning for beam position when more than one beam.
409 For staff middle, use stem direction from previous note.
410
411 18.07 More tolerant of misuse of guitar chords to write general stuff
412 above staff; now OK if "...." is alone on a line.
413 Minibug in syms.h: 'staff' left junk on PS stack.
414
415 17.07 For -c mode: don't complain about underfull; don't stretch
416 last staff much when underfull (new parameter BETA_C).
417
418 16.07 Fixed obscure bug.. after overfull, sometimes took duration for
419 chord from wrong note, because heads were sorted by pitch.
420 Also: use shrinkage from previous staff for undefull last staff.
421
422 15.07 Move slide further away for notes with accidentals.
423
424 09.07 Selectors before first file also valid; apply to first file.
425 Took out atof & atoi calls; main now returns int; changed
426 function names def_HD,def_Hd,def_hd.
427
428
429 ----- Version 1.2 -----
430
431 06.07 New flag -O to set output file.
432
433 26.06 Added general n-plet syntax "(p:q:r".
434
435 10.06 Slurs fatter in middle.
436 Hold (fermata) added code=H.
437 Changed code for bar to M (em-phasis).
438 Added up and down bow u,v.
439
440 09.06 Thick-thin, thin thick bars now [| and |].
441 Ties a-b-c now done correctly.
442 Carryover slurs at start and end of line.
443
444 08.06 Flat beams shifted to consistent positions relative to staff.
445
446 07.06 Set beta0 to avoid infinite stretching.
447 Redid key changes.. mcl.abc Cm-> C was wrong.
448 Fiddled some with slurs.
449
450 05.06 Fixed: accidental was too close on full note.
451
452 03.06 fix up n-plet cases: (1) on beam with other notes,
453 (2) draw bracket if not on same beam.
454
455 03.06 New flag -E to make EPS files eps001.ps, eps002.ps ...
456
457 02.05 Guitar chord can be put anywhere before note.
458 Changed note placement for single note in bar.
459
460 30.04 Mutiple decorations permitted on one note.
461 Bar for broad emphasis added, code is R.
462
463 29.04 Unions: chord with two identical notes like [CC]
464
465 29.04 Slide added, code is J.
466
467 26.04 Output buffer takes care of page breaks.
468
469 ----- Version 1.2x -----
470
471 [v1.2-x7]
472
473 11.04 Output to <file>.ps possible; set OUTPUTFILE in abc2ps.c
474
475 [v1.2-x6]
476
477 28.03 Can do normal or pretty output, depending on flag -p.
478 Layout parameters bundled as macros in main.
479
480 [v1.2-x5]
481
482 21.03 Changed roll symbol some more.
483 Put extra \n at end of Out.ps.
484
485 [v1.2-x4]
486
487 17.03 Fixed nasty bug for selection by xref; now ok on NeXT.
488 Changed roll symbol.
489
490 [v1.2-x3]
491
492 14.03 Added roll sign as optional way to draw ~.
493 Changed program to avoid all 'gcc -Wall' warnings.
494
495 10.03 Fixed wrong dimension for line in do_index (macro BSIZE)
496
497 08.03 Took out '#copies..' in PS file.
498 Added -m flag to set margin.
499
500 06.03 Added flag -i and interactive mode.
501 Fixed bug in beams, which wrote funny numbers over some beams.
502 Added "newpage" as option for E: field.
503
504 04.03 Added -f flag to permit different selectors for different files.
505
506 Changed meter change within tune: for change at start of line,
507 generally writes the symbol (even if the meter did not change),
508 but not if the meter change was used only to set the default
509 length with 'l' or 's'.
510
511 Removed math calls: cos(phi) and sin(phi) defined explicitly
512 in syms.h, also removed sqrt for beam test in music.h.
513 Advantage: now compiles without -lm flag.
514 (Note: '#include <math.h>' still needed for atof ??)
515
516
517 ----- Version 1.1 -----
518
519 24.02 Changed to multiple input files, added -e flag to identify
520 selectors in argument list.
521
522 14.02 Outputs "book" field also for -n flag.
523 Chord font changed to Helvetica 12.
524
525
526