Multiple settings are LOST on opening an MS3 score in MS 4.4.2

When will it stop?

My question refers to MS4's penchant for silently pruning data from MS3 scores, rather than including it in a functional manner:

     • LEN properties are silently ignored in MS4
     • Velocities are intentionally flattened to v64 in MSS4.4.2
     • Measure Stretch is goofed
     • MS4 imposes its opinion of "ideal" beam height and angle.
        Said differently: MuseScore 4 rejects detailed hand-edited beam positioning. They are purged and lost.
     • All mixer Pan settings to 0, i.e. centered.
     • The user must recreate guitar bends or they won't play right.
     • ...

Most of this amount sad news along the path, but today I noticed that—when opening a perfectly healthy MS3 score—MSS4.4.2 "silently" changes all Pan settings to 0.

      MS3-7 Pan settings not importing to MS4.mscz

What do I mean by "silently?"

I mean MuseScore changes all Pan settings without notifying the user.

On listening through a score that MuseScore silently altered the scorist likely notices that their project no longer sounds as good as it used to. But MuseScore fails to mention the knowable reasons why your score's playback and appearance has changed. If MuseScore did then the scorist would stand a chance of immediately and successfully identifying the cause: that MuseScore changed various property values to a neutral setting (like velocity 64, or pan 0) , to their default value, or to a setting deemed superior to your work. Once MuseScore provide such an admission the scorist can consciously do one of three things: accept the changes, set about attempting to restore the score to its prior state... or choose to NOT save.

An example of n alert MuseScore should post prior to altering our scores

If MuseScore announced, "Opening your score in this version of MuseScore will reset all Mixer settings to their default values" the user could choose to opt out. If they opt in—and want to have the score perform as it did perviously—they know they'll have to manually restore Mixer values and can use they're previous score as a guide, if they have a backup.

Granted everyone should have versioned file backups but, for those that don't, notifying offers them a fighting chance to hold onto their score in it's pristine state—that is, prior to shaking out values that MuseScore can't handle, or that it sees as inferior to its new gained wisdom.

I know my purposes better than MuseScore ever can

When scorists move toward adopting new releases of MuseScore we need assurances that our work/data are respected and retained, or at least, that we're warned of a pending purge.

Luminary Jef Raskin's thinking on preserving user data

I included the following quote in my post about MuseScore 4's lack of support for the Piano Roll Editor's LEN property, and feel the need to post it here as well.

The quote is from Apple/Macintosh user interface pioneer Jef Raskin (a dedicated musician himself) who advanced the term "ergonomics of the mind" in his book The Humane Interface:

Jef Raskin's No. 1, uber, utmost concept on good user interface:

"Preserve the user's creation as a whole and all its details, i.e. don't loose data, distort data or alter the appearance of the user's presentation, even when their preferred presentation or whimsy departs from application defaults." — Jef Raskin, The Humane Interface

Not only should MuseScore 4 afford due deference to our design/editing choices we need better design and testing please—I'm feeling like a de facto alpha-beta-gamma tester.

scorster