Guidelines for submitting digital scores (MusicXML, MEI) and notation program formats?

[maximumspatium]

It looks like I come too late to the party. Sorry!

IMSLP allows users to upload the source files (.sib, .mus, .ly, etc.) of their own typesets.

I think that it would be in the spirit of the IMSLP community to discourage its users from uploading scores in proprietary formats like Sibelius (*.sib, *.sco) or Finale (*.mus). These formats haven't been designed for score exchange. Morevoer, using such scores requires expensive legacy software available only for desktop systems. That means that more and more users switching to mobile solutions won't be able to read such files at all so the whole thing will be just a waste of storage.

Another danger of relying on proprietary software is that the vendor may either go out of business or drop support for your system rendering your whole work unusable. You could read this article if you're still unconvienced: http://blog.adamspiers.org/2013/02/25/m ... lius-saga/

Lilypond (*.ly) and Musescore (*.mscz) files look like better candidates because the corresponding software packages are open-source and therefore publicly available. Additionally, one can settle on the MusicXML format that has the strong advantage of being a very good format for score exchange.

Just my two cents...

[coulonnus]

You could also say: let us discourage users from using proprietary formats formats like Sibelius [...]. Did you read the introduction of http://imslp.org/wiki/IMSLP:Typeset_Music_formats?

The discussion could be WYSIWYG vs text input formats, e.g. Lilypond vs. Finale. I see an advantage of text input formats: by viewing the engraving file of a score made with the format I am using, I can learn how to solve difficult problems like ossia parts, long beams of 16th notes across staves etc.

[maximumspatium]

You could also say: let us discourage users from using proprietary formats formats like Sibelius [...].

I would say: "let us discourage users from using proprietary formats like Sibelius etc. as storage formats at IMSLP". This implies that users can continue to use proprietary software for creating/editing their scores internally but in the case they want to share their work with others they need to export the scores in an interchange format that is supported by a wide variety of notation software.

Did you read the introduction of http://imslp.org/wiki/IMSLP:Typeset_Music_formats?

Sure. I'm thinking of updating this page. For example, the Sibelius tab misses the fact that Sibelius starting with the version 7 can export MusicXML.

The discussion could be WYSIWYG vs text input formats, e.g. Lilypond vs. Finale. I see an advantage of text input formats: by viewing the engraving file of a score made with the format I am using, I can learn how to solve difficult problems like ossia parts, long beams of 16th note across staves etc.

I think everyone can decide itself which workflow he/she prefers. I raised this point for one simple, pragmatic reason - text-based formats can be easily read and understood (thus being self-documented) as opposite to undocumented and encrypted binary formats Sibelius/Finale use. And because everyone can read and understand text files it would be easily to create new software for importing music information.

[coulonnus]

You could read this article if you're still unconvienced: http://blog.adamspiers.org/2013/02/25/m ... lius-saga/

"in July 2012 Avid laid off the entire Sibelius development team[...]"

But in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibelius_(software)
"[...]though then recruited a few new programmers to continue development." Sibelius is still alive.

[maximumspatium]

"[...]though then recruited a few new programmers to continue development." Sibelius is still alive.

The blog article I've referred to was meant as lesson about what can happen to proprietary software. Although Sibelius is still alive nothing can prevent Avid from ceasing out its development. At the time being, Sibelius is being developed by a completely new team in the Ukraine. The latest new updates have brought nothing new to this legacy software. This is somewhat an indication for the fact that the new team need a lot of time to study the code they didn't write themselves.

There are much more troubles with Sibelius scores indeed. Below a short list:

• Sibelius scores aren't compatible across versions. I own Sibelius 5 and cannot therefore open Sibelius scores created with newer versions. The only solution is to install the newest version. It will work in the trial mode for 30 days and then I have to pay money in order to keep it running although I already have the older working version.
  
  The latest Sibelius requires the latest Windows or Mac OS X. No chance for Linux or mobile. The vendor dictates what system to use.
  
  There is no way to extract musical information from Sibelius scores without having Sibelius software installed because. Sibelius file format isn't documented and therefore there's no software capable of reading this format.

Honestly, why to stick on this legacy software at all during the whole world is moving away from desktop computing and the music world is slowly moving away from paper to more flexible digital media? Moreover, binary formats have been replaced with textual ones almost everywhere...

[coulonnus]

May perhaps help users to choose a notation software: learn which one major publishers use: see the right column of the scorewriter comparison in German Wikipedia https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von ... programmen

[coulonnus]

We organise music lovers to transcribe music scores of public domain opera and classical music into revisable, shareable, reusable digital files — and to give them away freely. Subscribe to our low-volume announcement email list, it's the best way to follow what we're up to!

What about adding this project into http://imslp.org/wiki/IMSLP:Sheet_Music_Projects in the New Engravings and Typesets, accepting scores in their typeset format paragraph, with brief comments?

[hhpmusic]

As a blind musician, I'd prefer both source and musicxml formats uploaded with the pdf. Musicxml can be directly converted into braille, while when the notation software is updated, more complete information can be exported into musicxml. So I always use the original file instead of musicxml, unless I have no the software which can open the original file.

[Sallen112]

As a blind musician, I'd prefer both source and musicxml formats uploaded with the pdf. Musicxml can be directly converted into braille, while when the notation software is updated, more complete information can be exported into musicxml. So I always use the original file instead of musicxml, unless I have no the software which can open the original file.

How are you able to make a post or read what is here? Is your computer's characters converted into braille or something?

[hhpmusic]

As a blind musician, I'd prefer both source and musicxml formats uploaded with the pdf. Musicxml can be directly converted into braille, while when the notation software is updated, more complete information can be exported into musicxml. So I always use the original file instead of musicxml, unless I have no the software which can open the original file.

How are you able to make a post or read what is here? Is your computer's characters converted into braille or something?

I can use a screen reader on my computer, and meanwhile, the texts on the screen are output to a braille display.