3 ms·

A tangent, but what about typesetting and typefaces for music sheets - anything like TeX for written music? Totally different needs than mathematical notation,

A tangent, but what about typesetting and typefaces for music sheets - anything like TeX for written music? Totally different needs than mathematical notation, but seems to share common issues, like specialized symbols, placements and spacings.

gerikson 7y ago
Philip Hazel (author and maintainer of the Exim mailer) has written a memoir where is discusses writing a program for typesetting music. It's well worth reading for that and other fascinating stuff: [pdf link](https://drive.google.com/file/d/10TAOEgIL--CmzqOl0fkdP-cagjSLBM4J/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/10TAOEgIL--CmzqOl0fkdP-cagjS...).
- lioeters 7y ago
  Oh wow, what a fun read! I started with the section on Music Typesetting, good stuff: Oxford Music Processor, his Philip's Music Writer, the language syntax to encode notation information.. This is right up my alley, thank you for the link. So much of it is relevant to our current time, it's still not a solved problem and there's room for innovation. I'll enjoy reading the rest of his memoir.
godbyk 7y ago
I think Lilypond <https://lilypond.org/> https://lilypond.org/> is the TeX for music engraving. For typesetting short snippets of music notation within TeX, you can use the MusixTeX package <https://ctan.org/pkg/musixtex> https://ctan.org/pkg/musixtex>.
- lioeters 7y ago
  Thank you, those are exactly the kinds of music typesetting/engraving software (and notation syntax) I was curious about. Following a few links, I found a great overview: MusiXTEX - Using TEX to write polyphonic instrumental music http://icking-music-archive.org/software/musixtex/musixdoc.pdf http://icking-music-archive.org/software/musixtex/musixdoc.p... (pdf) For Lilypond, here's an introduction that demonstrates how to "write music by typing text": Lilypond: "Compiling" Music https://lilypond.org/text-input.html https://lilypond.org/text-input.html

gerikson 7y ago

Philip Hazel (author and maintainer of the Exim mailer) has written a memoir where is discusses writing a program for typesetting music. It's well worth reading for that and other fascinating stuff: [pdf link](https://drive.google.com/file/d/10TAOEgIL--CmzqOl0fkdP-cagjSLBM4J/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/10TAOEgIL--CmzqOl0fkdP-cagjS...).

lioeters 7y ago
Oh wow, what a fun read! I started with the section on Music Typesetting, good stuff: Oxford Music Processor, his Philip's Music Writer, the language syntax to encode notation information.. This is right up my alley, thank you for the link. So much of it is relevant to our current time, it's still not a solved problem and there's room for innovation. I'll enjoy reading the rest of his memoir.

godbyk 7y ago

I think Lilypond <https://lilypond.org/> https://lilypond.org/> is the TeX for music engraving. For typesetting short snippets of music notation within TeX, you can use the MusixTeX package <https://ctan.org/pkg/musixtex> https://ctan.org/pkg/musixtex>.

lioeters 7y ago
Thank you, those are exactly the kinds of music typesetting/engraving software (and notation syntax) I was curious about. Following a few links, I found a great overview: MusiXTEX - Using TEX to write polyphonic instrumental music http://icking-music-archive.org/software/musixtex/musixdoc.pdf http://icking-music-archive.org/software/musixtex/musixdoc.p... (pdf) For Lilypond, here's an introduction that demonstrates how to "write music by typing text": Lilypond: "Compiling" Music https://lilypond.org/text-input.html https://lilypond.org/text-input.html