ReadMe.abc2ps - abc2ps - A powerful sheet setting tool using the simple abc notation
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ReadMe.abc2ps (27131B)
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1
2
3 Description of abc2ps (version 1.2)
4 ===================================
5
6 Program abc2ps reads an input file containing music in abc format
7 and typesets it directly in PostScript. It can also be used to list
8 the contents of an abc file.
9
10 For a description of the abc syntax, please see the abc userguide
11 which is a part of the abc2mtex package written by Chris Walshaw.
12
13
14 ----- Files -----
15
16 ReadMe.abc2ps this file
17 License GNU general public license
18 Changes history of changes to the program
19 New.Features description of new features in 1.2.5
20 layout.txt information about the music layout
21 abc2ps.c main program
22 buffer.h routines to control the output buffer
23 format.h routines for output formatting
24 syms.h routines to define postscript macros
25 subs.h general routines
26 util.h more general routines
27 pssubs.h routines for postscript output
28 parse.h routines to parse input lines
29 music.h routines to typeset music
30 style.h parameters for music layout
31 style.pure alternative style file for "puristic" layout
32 sample.abc input for demo and test
33 <others>.abc sample input files
34
35
36 ----- Installation -----
37
38 This is a single C program, consisting of file abc2ps.c and some
39 include files *.h. It can be compiled in the usual way to make
40 the executable abc2ps:
41
42 cc -o abc2ps abc2ps.c
43
44 To test the program, unleash it on file sample.abc like this:
45
46 ./abc2ps sample -o
47
48 The result can be inspected by using a PostScript previewer such as
49 ghostview on the output file Out.ps.
50
51
52 Possible problems:
53
54 By default, the generated PostScript is level 2 since it uses
55 the operator "selectfont". If you want level 1 output instead, set
56 macro PS_LEVEL to 1 in abc2ps.c.
57
58 Sometimes problems arise with the "stat" function. This used at the
59 end of the program to determine the size of the output file.
60 The call to 'stat' is in routine get_file_size in file subs.h.
61 This file also contains an alternative plodding version of
62 get_file_size, which can be used if the 'stat' version causes problems.
63 Alternatively, just throw out the call to get_file_size in the bottom
64 of abc2ps.c and change the printf statement accordingly... printing
65 out the file size is only for user information.
66
67
68 ----- Program structure -----
69
70 The program defines a number of PostScript macros for drawing
71 elementary components like note heads, stems, flags, bars,
72 rests etc. These definitions are written to the output
73 file Out.ps first. The symbols are mostly defined using Bezier
74 curves. At some stage, the macros should probably be changed
75 to user paths for more efficiency.
76
77 The input lines are read and interpreted one at a time.
78 The processing of the info fields is straightforward.
79
80 The main work is done for lines of music. Such a line is parsed
81 into a list of symbols. To position the symbols horizontally along
82 the staff, the program uses a method adapted from the "glue" used
83 Donald E. Knuth in the TeX program. The algorithm calculates
84 three separate sets of spacings:
85
86 "shrink": put the symbols as close together as is acceptable;
87 "space": space the symbols "naturally", whereby the space
88 behind a note reflects its length;
89 "stretch": make a similar but stretched layout which still looks good.
90
91 To fill the staff, the spacings are interpolated between the "shrink"
92 and "space" cases (if the sum of the natural spacings is larger than
93 the staff length) or between the "space" and "stretch" cases (if the
94 sum of the natural spacings is too short).
95
96 After the positions of all symbols are decided, lines are written to
97 Out.ps to invoke the previously defined PostScript macros with
98 suitable parameters.
99
100 File "layout.txt" gives information on the positioning and how to
101 modify the layout.
102
103
104 ----- Page breaking -----
105
106 Page breaking: version 1.2 avoids splitting a tune over pages
107 as much as possible. For each tune, the program checks whether
108 the remaining space on the page is large enough to fit it in.
109 If not, a page break is put in before the tune.
110
111 To do this, the Postscript output is accumulated in a buffer first.
112 For really large tunes, the buffer might overflow. In that case,
113 the output is just written out without attempting to place the
114 page breaks cleverly.
115
116
117 ----- Line breaking -----
118
119 The best output is usually obtained if the staff breaks are
120 chosen explicitly by suitable line breaks in the input file.
121 In this standard usage, the program tries to set the music as well
122 as possible for each line separately. The symbols '*' and '**' at
123 the end of a line are ignored, as well as the field 'E:' for
124 the elementary length.
125
126 However, if a line is too long to fit onto one staff, the overhang
127 is spilled onto the next staff in this version. This makes it possible
128 to get reasonable output even when the input is one long logical line.
129 In practice, this is equivalent to automatic line breaking.
130
131 To control line breaking, the following flags are available:
132
133 -b break at all line ends, even if they end with the
134 continuation symbol '\'.
135
136 -c consider the input as one long line, ie., implicitly append
137 the continuation symbol '\' to every line of music.
138
139 -B n try to typeset with n bars on each line.
140
141 -a x set the maximal amount of permitted shrinking to x,
142 where x lies between 0 and 1.
143
144 If none of these is specified, the standard line-by-line procedure
145 is followed, ie:
146
147 abc2ps infile -o
148
149 For completely automatic line breaking, use the command
150
151 abc2ps infile -c -o
152
153 This should produce reasonable staff breaks in most cases. However,
154 repeat bars, 1st and 2nd endings, and slurs might not be positioned
155 very nicely.
156
157 When doing automatic line breaking with -c, the user can control the
158 spacing of the symbols along the staff by specifying the "compression
159 parameter" alfa with the -a flag. A value of 0.0 means that no
160 shrinking is allowed, and a value of 1.0 allows shrinking until
161 the symbols are almost touching. When -c is used, by default alfa
162 is set to an intermediate value (displayed with 'abc2ps -c -h').
163 When -c is not used, maximal shrinking and stretching are allowed.
164
165 Thus, to really squeeze everything as much as possible, that is,
166 to get automatic line breaking together with maximal shrinking, use
167
168 abc2ps infile -c -o -a1
169
170 For more stretched output, use (for example)
171
172 abc2ps infile -c -o -a 0.2
173
174
175 The flag "-B n" formats with n bars on each line. This is useful
176 e.g. to try various spacings before deciding on how to set the
177 linebreaks explicitly in the file.
178
179 There is not complete agreement on what output should be generated
180 when a staff is underfull, which happens when maximal stretching
181 is not sufficient to fill the staff. The behaviour can be determined
182 by the following macros in abc2ps.c:
183
184 STRETCH_MODE: allowed values are
185 0 music for undefull staves is bunched to the left.
186 1 music for underfull staves is left-bunched for the last staff only.
187 2 underfull staves are spread over the whole staff.
188
189 STRETCH_STAFF: allowed values are
190 0 when music is bunched to the left, the staff is also shortened.
191 1 staff lines are always drawn all the way across the page.
192
193
194 Abc2ps 1.2 tries to take care of slurs and 1st & 2nd endings at the
195 line breaks. But in general, a tune will look a substantially better
196 when the breaks are chosen by hand.
197
198
199 ----- General usage -----
200
201 Basically, the usage is:
202
203 abc2ps file1 file2..
204
205 where file1, file2.. are the abc input files. This will list
206 the file contents. To generate Postscript output, add flag -o:
207
208 abc2ps file1 file2.. -o
209
210 Note that most flags (see below) can be used in any sequence.
211 Of course, the position does matter for flags e,f,C,S,R,T since
212 these determine how the following arguments are interpreted.
213
214 Flags can be contracted together if the meaning is clear,
215 and a numerical argument for the last flag can be appended.
216 That is, '-b -s 0.7 -v 1' can be contracted to '-bs0.7 -v1'.
217
218
219 ----- Tune selection -----
220
221 To select specific tunes from the files, use
222
223 abc2ps file1 file2.. -e selector1 selector2 ...
224
225 where each selector is a set of xref numbers or a pattern. Without -o,
226 this will list only the selected tunes found in the files. With -o,
227 output is generated only for the selected tunes.
228
229 Examples:
230
231 To list all the tunes in a file, say book1 or book1.abc (whichever exists):
232 abc2ps book1
233
234 To list selected tunes:
235
236 abc2ps book1 -e 1-3 5,20- 'House*' Hall
237
238 This selects xref numbers 1 to 3, 5, and 20 and above,
239 as well as those tunes whose title either starts with "House" or
240 contains the string "Hall". A pattern without wildcards such
241 as 'Hall' is treated as '*Hall*'
242
243 Optionally, the search can be done on other fields using these flags
244 in place of -e:
245 flag -R seaches the rhythm field
246 flag -C searches the composer field
247 flag -S searches the source field.
248 flag -T seaches the title field (default)
249
250 Thus
251 abc2ps book1 -C "John"
252
253 selects all tunes whose composer string contains "John".
254 If the -C flag is used, the composer field is also displayed when
255 the file are listed. The same goes for the flags -R and -S.
256
257 Flag -A selects all tunes, overriding other selectors.
258
259
260 ----- Selection on multiple input files -----
261
262 To filter several files with the same set of selectors, the format is:
263
264 abc2ps file1 file2 -e selectors...
265
266 To use a different set of selectors for the separate files,
267 use a command such as
268
269 abc2ps file1 -e 1-3 -f file2 file3 -R Jig
270
271 This will select tunes 1-3 from file1 and the tunes with 'Jig' in the
272 rhythm field from file2 and file3. More precisely, flag -f indicates
273 that the following arguments (up to the next -e flag) are file names.
274 Each set of selectors is applied to the files preceeding it.
275 As before, the flags -C -S -R can be used in place of -e to change
276 the searched field.
277
278 For convenience, there are two conventions:
279
280 1. An argument with the extension .abc is always assumed to be a
281 file name, and is treated as if it were preceeded by the flag -f.
282
283 2. An argument which is obviously a set of xref numbers is assumed
284 to be a selector, and is treated as if it were preceeded by the
285 flag -e.
286
287 For example, these three commands all select tunes 1-3 from A.abc
288 and tunes 5-7 from B.abc:
289
290 abc2ps A.abc -e 1-3 -f B.abc -e 5-7
291
292 abc2ps A.abc -e 1-3 B.abc -e 5-7
293
294 abc2ps A.abc 1-3 B.abc 5-7
295
296 On the other hand, this will NOT work in the expected way:
297
298 abc2ps A 1-3 B 5-7 -o
299
300 because the program has no way of knowing that B is an input
301 file name and not a pattern selector.
302
303 For complicated selections on multiple input files, it might be
304 better to run the program interactively (see below).
305
306
307 ----- Making Postscript output -----
308
309 By adding flag '-o', the selected tunes are typeset and written
310 to the output file. To typeset all tunes in file "book1.abc":
311
312 abc2ps book1 -o
313
314 To typeset selected tunes, use a command such as
315
316 abc2ps book1 -e 1-3 5,20- 'House*' Hall -o
317
318 The idea is to vary the numbers and/or patterns until the desired
319 titles are listed, then add -o to the argument list to make the
320 output file.
321
322 By default, all selected tunes are written into the same file,
323 with suitable page breaks added. By using the flag -E, EPSF output
324 is made. Each tune is then put into a separate file with a correct
325 bounding box and no page breaks.
326
327 Flag -O determines where the output goes. The argument to -O can be
328 either a file name or the '=' sign. The latter case tells abc2ps
329 to choose the name by itself.
330
331 For the PS and EPS modes, the output file names are:
332
333 PS mode:
334 default Out.ps
335 -O NAME NAME.ps
336 -O = Output for "foo.abc" is written to "foo.ps"
337
338 EPSF:
339 default Outnnn.eps, where nnn is a running index
340 -O NAME NAMEnnn.eps
341 -O = Outfile name is <tune_title>.eps
342
343 Note: an output file is overwritten if it already exists.
344 This will happen if two tunes have the same name and flag "-O ="
345 is used for EPSF output.
346
347
348 ----- Modifying the output -----
349
350 These flags change the output appearance:
351
352 -x includes the xref numbers in the tune title.
353
354 -1 writes every tune on a separate page.
355
356 -n includes historical notes and other stuff at the bottom
357 of each tune.
358
359 -p generates pretty output, with more whitespace between tunes,
360 larger fonts for titles, and larger music symbols. By default,
361 the layout squeezes the tunes to reduce the number of pages.
362
363 -s xxx scales the music output by factor xxx.
364
365 -w www sets the width of the staff to www points.
366
367 -m mmm sets the left margin to mmm points.
368
369 -g shrink|space|stretch|fill sets the "glue mode".
370 The default mode is fill, which fills the staff.
371 This flag is useful when changing the layout parameters,
372 to see what effect the changes have for each mode separately.
373
374 -B n format with n bars on every staff
375
376 -b forces a staff break at the end of each line, even if
377 the line has the continuation symbol \ at the end.
378
379 -c append the continuation symbol to all music lines,
380 which amounts to automatic line breaking.
381
382 -a x set the maximal allowed shrinkage to x, where x lies
383 between 0.0 and 1.0
384
385
386 ----- On-line help -----
387
388 Flags for on-line help:
389
390 -h quick help, equivalent to "abc2ps" without any arguments.
391 This also shows the default settings for some parameters.
392
393 -v n sets the verbosity for output to the screen to n.
394 Hereby -v0 gives very little, -v1,v2,v3.. show successively
395 more information. Verbosity >= 10 is for debugging.
396
397 -V shows the version number.
398
399
400 ----- Interactive mode -----
401
402 If the command list contains the flag -i, abc2ps runs in
403 interactive mode. This makes it possible to build up an output
404 file piece by piece. The disadvantage is that you have to start
405 over if you make a mistake.
406
407 Interactive mode is started with
408
409 abc2ps -i
410
411 The program then prompts for input with the line
412
413 select tunes:
414
415 The response should be a row of arguments, which are treated
416 in exactly the same way as in the non-interactive mode.
417 The only difference is that the input is not first run through
418 the shell, so that wildcards are not expanded and quotes are
419 not removed. Consequently Jig* should be used instead of 'Jig*' etc.
420 when specifying strings for selection, and filenames must be written
421 out in full.
422
423 To exit from interactive mode, enter 'q', 'quit' or an empty input.
424
425 For example, a "session" could look like this:
426
427 abc2ps -i start abc2ps interactively
428 book1 list tunes in book1.abc
429 book1 -e 1-10 list tunes with xrefs 1-10 in book1
430 book1 -e 1-10 -o write these to Out.ps
431 book2 list tunes in book2.abc
432 book2 -e House -o write tunes with 'House' in the title
433 quit exit abc2ps
434
435
436 To make things easier, there are three special characters:
437 ? shows the last input used;
438 ! at the start of line is substituted by the last files used;
439 * at the start of line is substituted by the last input.
440
441 This means that the same effect as above can be obtained in
442 shorter form like this:
443
444 abc2ps -i start abc2ps interactively
445 book1 list tunes
446 ! 1-10 equivalent to 'book1 1-10'
447 * -o equivalent to 'book1 1-10 -o'
448 book2 list tunes in book2.abc
449 ! -e House -o equivalent to 'book2 -e House -o'
450 q exit abc2ps
451
452 Note that the -e flag is not needed in the line '* 1-10'
453 because it is clear that '1-10' is a selector (see above).
454
455
456 Another point is that if additional flags are used when starting
457 interactively, these function as defaults for the interactive mode.
458 For example, by starting the program with
459
460 abc2ps -io
461
462 all selected tunes are immediately written to the output file.
463 The program usage is then very similar to that of abc2mtex. Of course,
464 it is not possible to list the file contents (to help choose among
465 the titles) when using the program in this way.
466
467 In interactive mode, flags -O -E can be used as before to redirect
468 the output. When switching to another output file, the previous
469 file is closed. Switching back to the same file later will overwrite
470 the file.
471
472
473 ----- Examples -----
474
475 These examples assume that wildcards '*' in the argument list
476 are automatically expanded out by the operating system, as
477 happens e.g. under the C shell under Unix. If not, the input files
478 should be specified explicitly, that is:
479 abc2ps x1.abc x2.abc x3.abc instead of abc2ps x*.abc
480
481 To list the contents of file 'mytunes.abc':
482
483 abc mytunes.abc
484
485 To typeset all tunes in 'mytunes.abc':
486
487 abc mytunes.abc -o
488
489 To typeset all tunes, choosing all line breaks automatically:
490
491 abc mytunes.abc -o -c
492
493 To do the same, but squeeze notes together more:
494
495 abc mytunes.abc -o -c -a0.9
496
497 To list the contents of all abc files in the current directory:
498
499 abc2ps *.abc
500
501 To search all abc files for tunes containing 'House' in the title:
502
503 abc2ps *.abc -e House
504
505 To list the contents of all abc files, showing the Rhythm field also:
506
507 abc2ps *.abc -R
508
509 To search all abc files for tunes with rhythm 'jig' or 'Jig':
510
511 abc2ps *.abc -R jig Jig
512
513 To do the same while avoiding cases like 'slip jig':
514
515 abc2ps *.abc -R 'jig*' 'Jig*'
516
517 To output all tunes by composer 'Carolan' in all abc files:
518
519 abc2ps *.abc -C Carolan -o
520
521 To output tunes 1 to 10 in A.abc and 11-20 in B.abc:
522
523 abc2ps A -e 1-10 -f B -e 11-20 -o
524 or
525 abc2ps A.abc 1-10 B.abc 11-20 -o
526 or
527 abc2ps A 1-10 B.abc 11-20 -o
528
529 To output all tunes with the string 'House' in the title or with
530 xref numbers 10-12, in all abc files whose name starts with X,
531 including historical notes and xref numbers in the output,
532 forcing a line break at continuation lines, with reduced size
533 of the symbols, putting one tune per page:
534
535 abc2ps X*.abc -e House 10,11,12 -onx -s0.9 -b1
536
537
538 ----- Differences to abc2mtex ------
539
540 Essentially, all features described in the abc2mtex userguide
541 should work. The are a few exceptions:
542
543 - The slur denotation S was replaced by the syntax (...)
544 (see below)
545
546 - Key signatures HP and Hp probably aren't treated
547 in exactly the right way.
548
549 - There is no automatic beam checking.
550
551 - There is no way to automatically transpose music in this version.
552
553
554 ----- Some extra features --- -----
555
556 For examples, see file sample.abc.
557
558 - Codes for decorations: including the ones defined in the
559 standard abc syntax, the following decorations are interpreted:
560 . dot, staccato
561 J slide
562 M bar (M='em-phasis')
563 H hold sign (fermata)
564 ~ gracing
565 R roll
566 u up-bow
567 v down-bow
568
569
570 - Escape sequences: embedding a string between two backslashes
571 in a music line delimits an escape sequence. In the present version,
572 these are treated as information fields. This makes it easy to
573 change key, meter, or default length within a line (see sample.abc).
574
575
576 - N-tuplets: abc2ps can handle general n-tuplet cases using the syntax
577
578 (p:q:r abcd ..
579
580 This means "put p notes into the time of q for the next r notes."
581 If q is not given, it defaults as described in the abc2mtex
582 user guide. If r is not given, it defaults to p. For example:
583
584 (3::2 = (3:2:2 ; (3 = (3:2:3
585
586 The number written over the n-plet is p. This generalized
587 syntax is compatible with the older usage. Actually, q is not used
588 at all here; it is only relevant for programs which play the music.
589
590
591 - Chords: The program accepts the +...+ notation, but it seems more
592 intuitive to use some kind of brackets to group together the notes
593 which make a chord. This program will accept square brackets:
594
595 [ace][adf]
596
597 in place of the +..+ syntax.
598 The abc notation formally permits notes with different durations
599 on the same stem: [a/bc2] and so on. This program assigns all
600 notes in a chord the duration of the first note in the bracket.
601
602 A chord with two identical notes makes a union (one head
603 with stems going both up and down), eg: [AA].
604
605
606 - Slurs and ties: in place of the syntax "SabcSd" for a slur
607 over notes abcd, this program uses the notation
608
609 (abcd)
610
611 for a slur over the notes abcd. It permits cases such as
612
613 (ab(cd)) and ((ab)cd) and (a(bc)d)
614
615 and similar slurs-below-slurs. To connect three or four notes
616 by ties (e.g., for a note held over several bars) use
617
618 (a(b)c) or by ties a-b-c
619
620 The rule is that any note alone within brackets like (b)
621 terminates a previous slur and at the same time starts a new one.
622
623 Note that the slur syntax (..) does not interfere with the (3abc
624 style for n-tuplets. If a bracket '(' is followed by a digit k,
625 it is interpreted as the start of a k-tuplet, otherwise it is the
626 start of a slur. For example, a slur is put over the last two
627 triplets in this line: (3abc ((3cde) ((3efg).
628
629 An unbalanced parenthesis ')' or '(' indicates the continuation
630 of a slur on a neighboring line. This is needed (for example)
631 in order to make automatic line breaking possible. It will also
632 lead to unexpected strange-looking additional slurs if the input
633 file contains the wrong syntax (3abc) instead of (3abc for triplets.
634
635
636 - Bars: The following symbols denote fat double bars
637 at the start or end of a piece (without repeat dots).
638 Namely: [| for thick-thin, |] for thin-thick.
639
640 For better results when using automatic line breaking, the program
641 will split up some types of bars when these are at the end of a line,
642 for example:
643 :: becomes :| together with |: on the next line
644 |: becomes | together with |: on the next line
645 :|2 becomes :| together with [2 on the next line etc.
646
647
648 - Field E: this field can be used to set some parameters from
649 within the file:
650
651 shrink set glue mode to compress
652 space set to natural glue widths
653 stretch stretched glue mode
654 fill normal mode to fill staffs
655 break ignore continuations
656 xref write xref numbers to output
657 one write one tune per page.
658 newpage start new page for next tune
659 lw ppp set local staff width to ppp points.
660
661 For example, to output a single tune in a narrower format,
662 put 'E:lw 400' into the header of this tune. If this is put
663 after the header but within the tune body, only the music is set
664 with a different width and the title is written as before.
665
666
667 ----- Customization -----
668
669 1. First of all, the horizontal layout of the notes can be changed
670 extensively. This is described in 'layout.txt'.
671
672 2. Then there are a number of macros in the main program abc2ps.c
673 which determine the page layout, ie:
674
675 PAGEHEIGHT height of paper
676 PAGEWIDTH width of paper
677
678 The following block determines the layout in the "pretty" mode (-p).
679 The numbers are various font sizes, skips between tunes etc.,
680 the seperation between staffs, and page margins. A similar
681 block (MAINTITLE2 ...) defines the normal, more compact mode.
682
683 MAINTITLE1 18
684 SUBTITLE1 15
685 SUBSUBTITLE1 12
686 ASKIP1 0.6 * CM
687 BSKIP1 0.6 * CM
688 CSKIP1 1.2 * CM
689 DSKIP1 0.5 * CM
690 TOP_SEP1 25
691 BOT_SEP1 25
692 LSCALE1 0.8
693 LMARGIN1 1.5 * CM
694 RMARGIN1 2.0 * CM
695 TMARGIN1 2.0 * CM
696 BMARGIN1 1.0 * CM
697
698 For example, the default staff width is calculated from these
699 parameters as PAGEWIDTH-LMARGIN-RMARGIN. The flags -w and -m change
700 this width and the left margin, respectively.
701
702
703 3. The behavior for underfull lines can be chosen (see "Line breaks").
704 Also consider these two parameters:
705
706 ALFA_C default compression when using the -c flag.
707 BETA_X maximal expansion allowed before considering a staff
708 underfull.
709
710 Thus, setting BETA_X to 100.0 lets lines be stretched to any
711 arbitrary amount quietly.
712
713
714 4. Parameters which influence the musical symbols (all dimensions
715 are in pt, relative to a fundamental spacing between staff lines of 6pt):
716
717 DECO_IS_ROLL How gracings ~ are interpreted. For 0, draws a trill sign.
718 For 1, draws a roll sign (cap) over the note.
719 LSCALE0 Overall scale factor. The "internal" height for the
720 staff is 24 pt, that is, 6 pt between the lines. This
721 is rather big, so LSCALE0 scales the size down.
722 BASEWIDTH Width of lines within music (bars, stems etc).
723 SLURWIDTH Width of Bezier curves when drawing slurs.
724 STEM_YOFF Offset of stem from note head center, y direction
725 STEM_XOFF Offset of stem from note head center, x direction
726 STEM Standard stem length for single notes.
727 STEM_MIN Minimal stem length when drawing beams.
728 STEM_CH Standard stem length for chords.
729 STEM_CH_MIN Minimal stem length for chords under beams.
730 BEAM_DEPTH Width of the horizontal stroke for beams.
731 BEAM_SHIFT How far the second, third beams are shifted up or down.
732 BEAM_FLATFAC Long beams are drawn with slope reduced by this factor.
733 BEAM_THRESH If the slope of a beam lies below this threshold,
734 it is drawn with slope zero.
735 MAX_SLOPE Upper limit for the slope of a beam.
736 DOTSHIFT Extra shift, to avoid putting the dot into the flag
737 on some notes.
738 GSTEM Grace note stem length.
739 GSTEM_XOFF Offset of grace note stem to head center.
740 GSPACE0 Space between grace note and main note.
741 GSPACE Space between grace notes.
742
743
744
745 ----- Summary of differences to version 1.1 -----
746
747 - better page breaking
748
749 - automatic line breaking possible
750
751 - EPSF output possible
752
753 - Slurs improved; slurs to previous/next staff allowed.
754
755 - New decorations: fermata, bar, up/down bow, roll sign, slide
756
757 - unions as [aa]
758
759 - thick-thin and thin-thick bars now [| and |]
760
761 - normal or pretty output, depending on flag -p
762
763 - horizontal beams positioned more cleverly
764
765 - n-plets can contain rests, eg. (3zab or (3azb;
766 uses brackets if the notes are not all on one beam.
767
768 - general n-plet syntax (p:q:r added
769
770
771 ---- Feedback -------
772
773 Any suggestions for improvement or bug reports are welcome.
774
775 Michael Methfessel (msm@ihp-ffo.de), June 1996.
776
777
778