3 GNU Music project - manifesto
7 Random ranting about the GNU Music project.
9 =head2 History of the GNU Music Project
11 Please note that this all happened when I wasn't around yet. If you
12 think that I am a biased, unfair, predisposed hypocrite, then don't
13 bother flaming me; I already know that.
15 The GNU Music project is a project which aims to create free software
16 for music printing and composing. It was started in november '92 by a
17 core team of four members (Bryan Ford <baford@cs.utah.edu>, David Linn
18 <drl@vuse.vanderbilt.edu>, Francois Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca>,
19 Neil Jerram <nj104@cus.cam.ac.uk> and in January '93 Robert Strandh
20 <Robert.Strandh@labri.u-bordeaux.fr> joined.
22 After serious disputes with Robert Strandh
23 <Robert.Strandh@labri.u-bordeaux.fr> and the FSF staff in '94, the
24 project core team got divided. The development efforts of GMP stopped.
26 Independently, I (HWN) started LilyPond. When I showed it to
27 RMS, he was very enthousiastic about having LilyPond in the GNU
28 project. I subsequently learned about the GNU Music project, and
31 What was left of the GMP (Robert Strandh) and us, LilyPond people,
32 agreed that cooperation would be desirable. Although merging of both
33 efforts was and is technically infeasible, we did decide that LilyPond
34 should also be part of the GNU Music project.
36 Only later did I discover the previous quarrels about the GMP-"take
37 1". To show that I am aware of the history, and to make sure nobody
38 gets me wrong or is angry at me because I stole a project or a
39 project's name, I wrote this note.
41 In summary, LilyPond is now the only substantial embodiment of the GNU Music
42 Project, and it is part of the GNU project.
44 For completeness' sake, I will mention the other efforts here:
48 =item G Sharp, http://dept-info.labri.u-bordeaux.fr/~strandh/Gsharp
50 An alpha version notation editor for X in Scheme. Source available on
55 An alpha version of a music editing system with Musictex
56 output. Pretest versions of GNU Music (v0.3) can still be obtained from
61 This history note is probably biased in some way, because I wrote it.
62 The rest of this document is also entirely mine, and is not meant to
63 reflect anyone else's opinion.
67 Provide musicians with free software for
107 These systems should encourage laymen to take up composing, in the
108 same way that GNU tools have created a whole new generation of
111 The public deserves free tools for composing and printing.
116 Emacs and TeX serve as useful examples of what programs by the GMP
123 (cf TeX), from engraving point of view
127 (cf Emacs) from software point of view: like all GNU software, it
128 should have no limits, be fast, etc.
132 Printed music has a lot of styles, and special symbols. It may be
133 unfeasible to provide and maintain lots of code that is hardwired
134 into the system. The tools should be extensible/programmable like
139 That is, for technical users (that can read a manual). The learning
140 curve should be as flat as possible but not at the expense of comfort
145 =head1 TASKS (LONGTERM)
149 =item A set of music fonts
151 Preferably in Metafont, suited to both screen display and use on
152 paper; This is needed because
154 1. the copyright heritage of
155 {Opus,Musix}tex is unclear.
157 2. We don't have any legal papers which make these fonts free (to use
160 =item A typesetting engine
162 A system with rules on how to set properties of items to be printed
163 (up/down directions, breaking, dimensoins, etc) LilyPond provides one,
164 but it is not (yet) suited to interactive typesetting
166 =item A display engine
168 which can display clear notewriting in (say) an X-window
170 Ideally the system should cooperate with the typesetting engine
172 =item An ASCII language
174 In development, LilyPond has a language. (See over there for goals)
175 Having an ASCII format which enables urtext, and easy sharing (via
176 mail and news forums) encourages cooperation and exchange of music.
178 =item A printing engine
180 Maybe to be merged with the display system.
182 =item An input system
184 The natural way to enter composed music is singing or playing it. The
185 GMP should have module which can take keyboard input or microphone
186 input and convert it to computer data. (microphone input would be
191 (have no clue about this)
193 =item A scanning system
195 Having a system which can produce mudela from printed scores, greatly
196 simplifies creating a collection of music
198 =item A music-understanding system
200 (difficult) A system to generate accompaniments, figured bass,
201 automatic accompaniment, etc.
212 A noninteractive typesetter, suited for batch jobs, and typesetting
213 existing music. This would couple the ASCII language, the printing
214 engine and the typesetting engine
216 LilyPond is currently representing this section.
220 A GUI for composing. This would combine the display engine, the input
221 system and the typesetting engine.
225 Libraries for reading and writing various audio/music/notation
230 The typesetting system has a complexity comparable to TeX's, the GUI
231 would be comparable to LyX (?) with additional complexity in
234 =head1 TASKS (SHORT TERM)
240 Gather a moderate number of test users and hackers
252 Think about interfaces for components.
256 Find sponsors. This project will take a long time, and in its infant
257 stages, having a hard and small core which does a lot of work, is more
258 efficient than lots of people doing small subprojects. Finanicial
259 support would be desirable.