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workaround sport

I find it difficult to understand why the missing features in the program are being put right at such a slow pace. After 10 or may be 20 years there are still basic features that are not native or not available altogether. Why not fix them all in a reasonable time and end the workaround sport?
Don't get me wrong, I am glad workarounds exist, I'd be in trouble without them... But they often are so laborious... For example, just omitting the "3" from tuplets can result in doubling the time of work on a piece. And what about features that cannot be workaround-ed? Of course, there is the wishing list...
The way I see it NWC is like car that runs well but doesn't have turning lights for example. Of course you can workaround the problem with a flashlight... The right side could be somewhat troublesome if you are traveling alone, but you could still workaround it with a broomstick...
IMHO this is the reason why in spite of the fact that NWC offers many advantages in comparison to other music programs it's still far less popular amongst professional musicians.
I realize this may sound uncomfortable to some, I only hope it will be aknowledged that my intention is constructive. 
All the best

Re: workaround sport

Reply #1
If I were paid to do a lot of transcription I would have given up on NWC a long time ago.  As an amateur musician I can live with its shortcomings and have done my share of workarounds and enjoy the challenges.  Of course I enjoy the advice and tools people like Rick, Lawrie, and Andrew have produced over the years.

I guess you have seen Hiding the 3 in Triplets?
Since 1998

Re: workaround sport

Reply #2
Yes, it's exactly what I was referring to. As I said I am grateful to you and others who supply ways to deal with the program limitations, I just hope the program developers don't consider any problem solved because there is a way out.
I too use the program for my personal needs, mainly chamber music arrangements with the classical guitar that I then play. 
And I fix the problems with tippex and cissorrs whenever I need to. Shocking, I know:-)
If you like you can find me under my real name (Yehuda Schryer) on utube.
Keep the good work!
  

Re: workaround sport

Reply #3
Don't get me wrong, I am glad workarounds exist, I'd be in trouble without them... But they often are so laborious... For example, just omitting the "3" from tuplets can result in doubling the time of work on a piece.

Looks like I have another assignment.  Watch this space for triplet.htm.
Since 1998

Re: workaround sport

Reply #4
Hi Warren, thanks for your reply. I can't open the link you sent. Can you please help?
Thanks

Re: workaround sport

Reply #5
May I please chime in on this topic?

Humble opinion dept.  It's addressed as well to Eric as to the general forum.

I concur with Leon.

Part of the problem -- and it is a problem -- is that the Wish List is hidden.

Yes, there's the request form.  But where's the list itself, the open items? 

How does anyone ever see what has been submitted to it?   And then much less, ever see what if anything is being addressed?

Yes, new revs are released.  Yes, some of them relate to lingering requests from some time ago.

But with an invisible Wish List there cannot be a consensus, understanding, or sense of priority.  It's just something floating in the clouds until it might -- or not -- show up in a new rev.

Plus -- how does one avoid making a duplicate or redundant request, when one does not know what has already been requested?

Meant constructively, hoping it's taken that way.

Joe

Re: workaround sport

Reply #6

But with an invisible Wish List there cannot be a consensus, understanding, or sense of priority. 

I'm not sure which way I would jump with this, but as a devil's advocate, with a visible wish list, wouldn't the requests get skewed by people looking at the wish list and saying - "I like that idea, I'll vote for it too".  Or even worse - "I don't like the idea that's in the lead, I'll vote a few times for a different enhancement."

Isn't an invisible wish list the safest way to find out what users really want without being too influenced by others?
Rich.

 

Re: workaround sport

Reply #7
A wish list wouldn't necessarily need to be voted upon by members.  Just knowing what has been requested could keep the number of duplicate requests to a minimum.  Additionally, knowing what has been requested may light a fire under other members who have expertise in programming and NWC to come up with an alternate solution or enhancement.

Re: workaround sport

Reply #8
Hi Richard,
I confess I did not think of the aspect you brought up. But coming to think of it I see no problem in someone being influenced by another, as far as it's done fairly and the option to vote more than once is blocked. And like Debaumann said there is no real need to vote.

Like Joseph I believe that a transparent wish list would be more democratic, or better said it would be democratic.

Re: workaround sport

Reply #9
I don't know that I agree, but you can try to convince me.  It strikes me that an invisible wish list is a way of finding out what the most popular wish is without it being influenced by others. Admittedly, people will post on the forum to the effect that they have requested a function and this will cause others perhaps to also post for the same thing.

The way it is at the moment, if 50 users add to the wish list that they would like the ability to remove the 3 on a triplet, 20 users request n-tuplets other than triplets, 10 users request being able to beam rest chords but 100 users have requested two directional beaming within a single staff, then NoteWorthy have a clear indication of the greatest wish. (Examples only .... not my order of wishes).  A visible wish list would substantially slew the results.


debaumann writes :

Quote
A wish list wouldn't necessarily need to be voted upon by members.  Just knowing what has been requested could keep the number of duplicate requests to a minimum.


But isn't the whole point that the number of duplicate [and triplicate and quadruplicate and quintuplicate and n-tuplicate......... ] requests in a hidden wish list represents the most popular request for enhancement. So NoteWorthy will then know which direction to plan for, what needs to be done to the file structure to achieve the most wished for feature and indeed, if the effort of planning and making the changes will be worth the disruption to the NoteWorthy road plan, backwards compatibility, ease of use and all of the things that I suspect NoteWorthy think about and that we, the users, don't give a second thought to.

Don't get me wrong, I could equally well argue the opposite case ....  just stimulating debate because I can see both sides. But you have to remember that NoteWorthy costs are very pocket friendly, unlike other products some of which I read are running into problems. Perhaps you might give thought to the fact that to produce all the changes that I think might be in the wish list within a short amount of time, may be possible but at Sibelian (?) costs.  Would you pay that amount to see all the enhancements that users want within a short period of time ?
Rich.

Re: workaround sport

Reply #10
This is something of a conundrum I agree.

On the one hand I would really like to see the things that have been requested - as much out of curiosity as anything.

On the other hand, I can see how having the wish list invisible means there is a kind of voting capacity built in.  The more times some enhancement is requested by users who don't know what other users have requested would give an indication as to how, umm, important a certain enhancement is.

I don't really know which is better, but I guess we do know how Eric prefers it...

On the other, other hand...  When I created my font suites there was no mechanism in NWC to enable selection of an alternative system font - you had NWC2STDA and that was it - if you wanted a different typeface you had to name the new font exactly the same as the standard font and replace one with the other.  My fonts proved popular enough that Eric made changes to NWC2 to accomodate them.  So I guess there is a third mechanism, create something popular and that can be integrated...

User tools are an excellent way of doing this, but I must say that I prefer user tools that are installed on the PC rather than having to visit a web site - I don't always have access to the internet, like when I'm on holidays, I deliberately leave the 'net behind (my mobile phone gets turned off too), but I like to catch up on some notating tasks.

(BTW, I'm not having a shot at you Warren)

<Ahh, I see Rich has posted much the same thing while I've been typing this - great minds ;)  >
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: workaround sport

Reply #11
User tools are an excellent way of doing this, but I must say that I prefer user tools that are installed on the PC rather than having to visit a web site - I don't always have access to the internet, like when I'm on holidays, I deliberately leave the 'net behind (my mobile phone gets turned off too), but I like to catch up on some notating tasks.

(BTW, I'm not having a shot at you Warren)
No offense taken--if I could talk fluent php I would be writing user tools myself.  Web pages powered by javaScript is the only way I know to program now, no C or COBOL compilers on this computer.

BTW, LEON, I haven't done anything with triplets.htm yet--that was just a placemark.  My creative jucies are flowing--I'll be figuring out how to change time signatures, tempo markings, and all objects with a duration.  Creating the code to make it happen comes next followed by testing, uploading it to my webpage, adding another link to my nwc.htm, then advertising it to the world.
Since 1998

Re: workaround sport

Reply #12
I suspect we are sliding into philosophical grounds...
In my view there is no danger that anybody should be influenced in a bad way by seeing other people's opinions. My impression is that the NWC public is intelligent and has its own mind, I can count on most everybody agreeing to this, I believe. The assumption that a transparent wish list will lead to slewed results is based on another assumption, which is that people are not capable to have their own mind unless they are kept isolated. This has something of a patronizing flavour if I may say so. I am sure nobody meant that, but still, it sounds a bit like it...
An open discussion cannot but bring out the best out of any subject, the conjunction and interraction between human minds - with all its problematicity - is more of a blessing than a curse, and isn't it what internet is all about?

Re: workaround sport

Reply #13
No offense taken--if I could talk fluent php I would be writing user tools myself.  Web pages powered by javaScript is the only way I know to program now, no C or COBOL compilers on this computer.
Hey mate, you aren't limited to php you know...  I am in no way to be mistaken for a programmer but even I've managed to cobble together a few tools using VBScript (with a little, make that a lot, of help from Rick).

The Windows Script Host also supports JScript...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Script_Host
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188135

A tutorial:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/batch-windows-scripting-host-tutorial/

Vista and Win7 have it installed natively I believe.  For the rest of us:
Windows Script Host for XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8247
Windows Script Host for W2k:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20240
Windows Script Host for WSVR 2k3:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24059

This is the link to my "MakeChord" tools - perhaps they will help... or perhaps not...  :)
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=5738.0
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: workaround sport

Reply #14


   Way back at the beginning of time (1995 or so) I wrote - by letter (!) and by E-mail - to the friendly Noteworthy Support People with both a Wish List and also specific queries about specific problems.  On the latter I got helpful replies from Eric and from Beth, and on the former I was given a link to the Wish List page.

   Later - in March 2004 (I think) - I E-mailed in an updated Wish List ... and I may have posted that Wish List - 20 items some of which have actually been granted by now - as a Forum item, though I can't find it now.  To raise a smile, I attach it below.

   And at much the same time, mildly irritated by the lack of a visible Wish List, and assuming that almost all wishes would somewhere have been aired publicly in the Forum, I began the fairly gargantuan exercise of going through the Forum items and collecting all the wishes with the intention of making a List and then posting it as an updatable Topic in its own right.

   Eventually I got bored with the task - it was quite difficult to precis people's ramblings into something clear and succinct - so, with other things to do (like a living to earn), I gave up.

   Perhaps one of you lot might like to take up the task?

   MusicJohn, 10/Jul/12

====

   2004 Wish List

1)   A proper printed manual.  I'd be prepared to pay for one!

2)   Combining two staves - that is, "copying" everything in one staff on top of the corresponding things on a second staff.  I know, of course, that in 1.75 you can place two staves on top of each other, to view and to print, but that's not quite the same as actually copying one onto the other.

   And it would be nice to be able to Insert a new Staff with all the characteristics of an old one - rather like "Copying" the old staff in toto to form a new one.

3)   Automatically joining two staves end to end - one from one File, say, and the second from the other - would be nice (though I appreciate that, with two Windows open, you can do this manually).  The extreme of this would be to joint two like Files together, one on the end of the other (so that two pieces of music can be keyed in quite separately, and then joined seamlessly to each other).

4)   Having a really long note (a breve) as well as a really short note (a semi-demisemiquaver; you added this latter for 1.55, I think).

5)   Providing an automated facility for trills and rounds (you know; "tr~~" and "^^^^") and chord "rolls" (a vertical jagged line).  This is perhaps Feature No: 509.24?

   And, while you're at it, providing a printable note symbol where the stem is crossed to indicate that the note is played as lots of rather smaller notes; violins do this all the time.  And actually implementing that - so that, for instance, a minim with a double line cross is actually played as a sequence of eight semiquavers.

   An alternative way of showing this for a "chord" of notes is to have the larger notes grouped and "beamed" with the lines corresponding to the smaller notes.

6)   You now have keypresses for staccato (.) and tenuto (_) note styles, but what about that  note length usually defined by the "'" (apostrophe) symbol?

7)   You could usefully automate beaming as the notes are actually entered - toggling beaming on/off with, say, the square brackets symbol "[".

   And though you now allow automated beaming for any unbeamed notes within a staff - from the Tools Menu; Alt-TA - nevertheless with some time signatures it doesn't seem to give the right effect.  For example, in plain 4/4 time four quavers usually get beamed as two pairs rather than as a single quartet, and yet in scores they're usually written as all four beamed together.

8)   The Help Files say that beaming across a rest is not allowed - which is now not true, since you added this features a few versions ago.  It also says that beaming across a bar line is not allowed ... but it ought to be, albeit as a special case, because that's how some scores are printed.

9)   And still on the subject of beaming, it would be nice if beamable triplets (and other similar groups) could be beamed with adjacent beamable notes - for example, a triplet of semiquavers beamed with an adjacent quaver.

10)   A note can be combined with a (smaller) rest, like a chord, and by suitably selecting the "stem" direction of both rest and note so that the rest can be forced to be either above or below the note.  Moreover, any note - and any rest - can be made "invisible", so as not to show in the printed copy.  However, with a rest/note combination it does not seem possible to make the rest invisible while still keeping the note visible.  This is a shame, because in fact many piano scores show notes combined with an invisible rest!

11)   Crescendo and Decrescendo are fine, but ... can you please, please, please now allow use - both printable and implementable - of "hairpins"?  It would be wonderful to be able to insert one over the start note and then drag it longer over the subsequent notes who's dynamic is to be changed (though quite how you'd decide the degree of change ... obviously you'd start with the running value, but the change ... maybe you could set each case to "1" or "2" or "3" or whatever, meaning up or down that number of levels in the ppp-pp-p-mp-mf-f-ff-fff sequence?  This is Feature No: 509.25.

12)   It would be quite useful to be able to start Bar/Measure Numbers from a value less than zero - a negative value - so as to allow for lead-ins and the like to a piece of music the real beginning of which is at bar one (say).

   It could also be useful to be able to choose to have the Bar Numbers shown (but not printed) on staves other than/in addition to the top staff, so that when entering a piece with too many staves to see all at once, the Bar Number would be visible even when looking at the bottom staff.  Using Ctl-G is not the same!

13)   When the Insertion Point cursor is not on some specific feature the Status bar could, with advantage, show the current dynamic and tempo values.  And perhaps other "running" values?

14)   1.75 is quite good on triplets and the like - that is to say, it can recognize groups of three (or six or nine or ... ) notes and "convert" them appropriately.  It would be nice, though, if it could mark a group of six with a six  -6-  (as a sextuplet) rather than with a three  -3-  .  It would also be nice if it could recognize and deal with other numbers of notes ... fives and sevens, for example (lots of modern composers insist on using them; it's damned irritating!).  And doublets, too (when, say, a pair of quavers is played as though it were really a pair of dotted quavers)!

15)   And further on triplets, why can't the bracketed 3 triplet symbol be forced to be either above or below (as required), in the same way that a slur or tie can?

16)   Back with 1.55 you added grace notes, which is fine, but ... so far as I can see the notes actually selected for the grace notes - quavers, semiquavers, whatever - may be shown in the printouts, but they do not seem to affect the actual length of the grace notes as played.  Wouldn't it be better if they did have an appropriate effect?

17)   One possible form of Bar ending is a double bar line.  1.75 treats this as though it were actually a bar end, so that the next bar has the next bar number.  However, many pieces use the double bar line to indicate the end of a section, and this may in fact not be at the end of a bar at all!  So it would be nice if, when a double bar is inserted, you could choose whether it counts in the bar numbering or not.

18)   When keying in music with associated lyrics it is not unusual to find a note held (tied) or slurred across a bar (measure) line.  If this note is associated with a word (or part of a word) it would be nice to show that word extending across the bar line as well.  At the moment the lyric editor does not allow this.

19)   Several other Music Programs - whether Notation or Sequencer - allow you to choose to have each note sound as it is entered, which is very helpful for assisting you to avoid mis-entry.  That would be a great feature for NWC.

20)   And finally - and this is my most wished-for feature - it would be truly wonderful if NWC could include a real time Mixer Board (as in Midisoft's Session/Studio) allowing real time adjustment of each channel's Midi effects like volume, chorus, pan, instrument, channel number.  Considering that almost everything I do with NWC ends up with a Midi File which I then import into Session to allow me to make the final adjustments, being able to do this "natively", within NWC itself, would be heaven!

Re: workaround sport

Reply #15
12)   It would be quite useful to be able to start Bar/Measure Numbers from a value less than zero - a negative value - so as to allow for lead-ins and the like to a piece of music the real beginning of which is at bar one (say).
It's possible now (kinda).  Start at measure zero and exclude bar lines in the lead in measures from the count.  It's another workaround.
Since 1998

Re: workaround sport

Reply #16

And yet another  .....  Shhhh .......


This nwc file has a starting value of -7.   You can actually do a CTRL G to go to the minus value bar (in this case from -7 to -1)
The bars have NOT been set up to "exclude from bar count".


Rich.

Re: workaround sport

Reply #17
At long last we can unveil, er, release for beta testing, Triplets.htm.  I tested it on all four staves of Purdam's transcription of Jesu Joy, adding four new staves so I could see played/hidden and displayed/muted staves for all original staves.

It is not necessary to paste in the original staff twice.  After doing the first staff click on "Restore Last" then change the radio button option before "Submit".

Feedback is welcome.
Since 1998

Re: workaround sport

Reply #18
Warren, when I tried your new Triplets.htm I pasted in 6 quarter notes and 6 eighth notes, and thought it might automatically make them into 4 sets of triplets.  It didn't.  It gave me the same notes back with each note paired with another invisible one of half its duration.

So I figured you were meaning the routine to remove triplet brackets but retain the triplet characteristics.  I went back to my source notes, made the triplet groups manually, and copied that into your webpage.  Wrong assumption again.  

I conclude that I don't know what your tool is meant to do.  While I appreciate the work you've done, may I suggest adding an introduction to the top of the triplets.htm webpage to tell the user what the routine will do, in layman's terms?  


... release for beta testing, Triplets.htm.  ...
Feedback is welcome.

Re: workaround sport

Reply #19
Thanks for looking at it.  The program starts with a staff full of triplets, for example Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.  From there it will 1) Change the time signature from 3/4 to 9/8, 2) Change the tempo indication from Quarter = ?? to Dotted Quarter = ??, and 3) Increase the duration of all objects with a duration by 50%.  This will remove the triplet designation of existing triplets--other durations are dotted (if possible) or tied to a similar object with half the duration.

Example: A dotted eighth followed by a 16th would be changed to a dotted eighth tied to a dotted 16th followed by a dotted 16th.  On the displayed & muted staff the tempo indications and time signatures are immediately followed by a hidden one and non-triplets will be followed by a hidden rest with half the duration.

I still need to fix some problems with beaming on the played staff, though.

If anyone needs something to tripletize a series of duration objects in the smallest grouping (e.g., nine eighth notes would go into three sets; a 16th, five 8ths, & 16th would go into one set), I'll see what I can do.

So I figured you were meaning the routine to remove triplet brackets but retain the triplet characteristics.  I went back to my source notes, made the triplet groups manually, and copied that into your webpage.  Wrong assumption again.

That was exactly what it was supposed to do.  The script works with the entire staff at one time unless each section of a piece has its own tempo indication and time signature.  It attempts to implement Triplets v. Duples, 3/4 v. 9/8, Hiding "3" in triplets.

Edited change: Just added a new header and think I fixed a beaming problem on the (hidden?) played staff.  Also, please check out the "How to use" button where I have more documentation.
Since 1998

Re: workaround sport

Reply #20
Hi Warren

I won't have time to experiment for a week or so, but the narratives you've added are helpful.  

A minor suggestion "This webpage will allow you to remove triplets in NWC files " might be clearer by changing "remove triplets" to "remove triplet brackets."

At the top of Triplets.htm. , the link "Triplets v. Duples, 3/4 v. 9/8, Hiding \"3\" in triplets" in red doesn't go anywhere. The same link is at the bottom of the "How to use " page is fine.

"The script works with the entire staff at one time unless each section of a piece has its own tempo indication and time signature."  If I have 100 measures but only have triplets in 30 of them, will the routine do undesired things to notes in measures that don't have triplets?

Re: workaround sport

Reply #21
A minor suggestion "This webpage will allow you to remove triplets in NWC files " might be clearer by changing "remove triplets" to "remove triplet brackets."

At the top of Triplets.htm. , the link "Triplets v. Duples, 3/4 v. 9/8, Hiding \"3\" in triplets" in red doesn't go anywhere. The same link is at the bottom of the "How to use " page is fine.

"The script works with the entire staff at one time unless each section of a piece has its own tempo indication and time signature."  If I have 100 measures but only have triplets in 30 of them, will the routine do undesired things to notes in measures that don't have triplets?
Just changed the documentation to say "triplet brackets".  The new header line was copied from the code that built the new window and the backslashes were mandatory in javaScript, but not in html.  Anyway the link in the new header line now works.

I've added a checkbox to allow the original time and tempo to be restored at the end of generated code.

Objects with a non triplet duration will sound the same and, in the displayed/muted staff, look the same.

Many thanks for the feedback.
Since 1998

Re: workaround sport

Reply #22
Hi Warren, I have tried the triplets assistent, thanks.
It turned the triplets in non triplets ok, changed time signature and tempi fine. But suppose I need quarter notes in the bottom staff underneath the pseudo triplets: if I don't submit them too, the bars will bear a different lenght. And if I submit them the quarter notes will appear as dotted quarters, which of course you don't want.

In the old workaround you would have a hidden eight rest after every quarter note in the bottom staff, and this seemed to me the most time consuming part of the work around. Can the assistent make one's life easier for this too?


Re: workaround sport

Reply #23
It starts with the assumption the staff/staves are visible and played.  Be sure the web page is open at the same time NWC is.  First create a new staff and hit the mute icon (or F2 -> midi -> muted checkbox).  Back to the first staff.  Home, shift/End, Cntl/X, Alt/Tab, Cursor in textarea, Cntl/V, Submit, Cntl/X, Alt/Tab, Cntl/V, Alt/Tab, Restore Last, Select Displayed (muted), Submit, Cntl/X, Alt/Tab, Go to new empty staff, Cntl/V.
Quote
In the old workaround you would have a hidden eight rest after every quarter note in the bottom staff, and this seemed to me the most time consuming part of the work around. Can the assistent make one's life easier for this too?
This is exactly what the Displayed (muted) option does.  Note how the hidden/played, displayed/muted staves are used in Meditation to make the pentuplets work.  Played/hidden notes concurrent with pentuplets are extended by a quarter of their length with ties to new notes, but in the displayed/muted staves the ties to new notes are replaced with hidden rests.  Same principle.
Since 1998

Re: workaround sport

Reply #24
Beautiful!

Thanks a lot, I got it at last. I have the impression it was more difficult for me to understand what to do than for you to write the script. But now that I learned the trick it all feels pretty friendly
Keep the good work going

Re: workaround sport

Reply #25
User tools are an excellent way of doing this, but I must say that I prefer user tools that are installed on the PC rather than having to visit a web site - I don't always have access to the internet, like when I'm on holidays, I deliberately leave the 'net behind (my mobile phone gets turned off too), but I like to catch up on some notating tasks.

Just did some thinking on this.  It's not necessary to visit my pages if you know in advance you will want to use one my tools.  The next time you visit it on your browser File menu there is a "Save As" or "Save Page As" option.  This will download the page to your computer.

If you do this, please do me a favor.  Take out the last script (sets up a link to my hitcounter) as well as the last two lines before (/body) (Actually it's "<>" but I hate to use real html in a post.).
Since 1998

Re: workaround sport

Reply #26
I was recently working on a transcription of a piece (Corelli 2nd, mvt. 2) where there were three sections of 9/8 while everything else was 3/4.  My original tests were on converting Jesu Joy, but this piece was more involved and I've had to make a few changes.

Now, whole rests are left alone but the time signature must be correct.  When a whole rest is used in 3/4 time, it doesn't need an extra 1/2 rest to make it work in 9/8.  My other change was to maintain slurs in created hidden rests so the muted/displayed staff would show the slurs correctly.

If anyone want to use this page (see link in earlier post) or soon to be tool, you might want to list the ranges in measure numbers and run them from back to front and bottom to top so the measure numbers will display correctly for the parts you haven't worked on yet.  Also, be ready to insert new (hidden) time signatures where the triplets come on and go off.
Since 1998