Cleaning up the instrument list
Thanks to ChurchOrganist we now have a quite extensive list of instruments in the instrument list. How do we move forward from here?
* There is a proposal to make the list more hierarchical. As I stated there, I'm not a big fan of this approach. My best proposal is here.
* The current instrument groups are in a "random" order. Strings and plucked strings are not close to each other. Free reed is up in the list, while harmonica and accordeon are not the most common instruments.
* The display doesn't use the "description" field. If someone has a good idea to display it, shoot. If not, we will just skip it!
* If trackname is not mentioned, the displayed name is the first longName. This behavior leads to repetition. For example, Viola da gamba is listed 3 times. I think we should add a trackname and mention [tablature] in it, if needed.
* MusicXML ids are not yet used. I would like to implement them, at least for export.
Any thought?
@ChurchOrganist: what's the status of the list for you? do you still hold the lock on the file in the repository? I would like this lock to be release, or the "locking" period to be shorter, and then more pull requests if needed.
Comments
how about a 'tool tip' like usage, i.e. show it when the user hovers with the mouse over the entry?
The link to your proposal doesn't work...
In reply to reg. hierarchical by Jojo-Schmitz
fixed
how about sorting alphabethical? And that as per translation.
May need some renameing to make more sense, like "(un)pitched percussion" vs. "percussion, (un)pitched" and "(plucked) strings" vs. "strings(, plucked)"
This is a virtual or mental lock, nothing enforced by git, right?
In reply to reg. lock by Jojo-Schmitz
virtual lock of course, git doesn't enforce any lock.
wasn't that the whole idea of the excecise in the first place?
In reply to reg. MusicXML ids by Jojo-Schmitz
Not the only goal but one of the main goal indeed.
Briefly because it's getting late!
The order of the instrument groups is as based on Orchestral Score order as defined here: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/catmet/reference/formatspecific/score…
This is with the exception of some of the free reeds which I have put in the wind section for the time being.
I still haven't quite completed the Electronic Instruments group, and Marching Percussion still needs to be added.
Can I just stress here that Alphabetical order is NOT the way forward. Instruments need to be near where composers expect to find them, and therefore Orchestral Score Order is the most logical way of organising them. There are, however, problems with many of the instruments which are not orchestral, as they come into the "Other" category. I initially took the view that the Free reed instruments not falling into the keyboard category probably belonged in the Wind section, but technically they too fall into "Other".
I have been a bit busy with the day job over the last few weeks, but the summer doldrums are beginning to get close when I will have more time to look at this.
Regarding the lock - there is no reason why other people shouldn't work on the file, provided I get to know of any changes - a note in Mscore-Developer is all that's required - the only reason being that unless I spot it in the list of commits, I could well end up overwriting the edit with a new version of the file.
Will write some more tomorrow about this.
In reply to Briefly because it's getting by ChurchOrganist
Regarding descriptions. My initial response was to have a tool-tip system. Some of the descriptions are quite lengthy, however, so that may not be the best way of handling it.
Would the use of a context menu be the way forward? That way the description could pop up a (scrollable) window with the description in it.
The use of TrackName would be good.
There are also other things I want to start implementing to do with support for expression in wind and other sustained instruments. This will consist of adding the controller 11 to the Channel block of those instruments, which will then enable control from stave text messages.
There is still a whole wealth of ethnic percussion which needs adding from the MusicXML sounds list - if anyone cares to help with this - please come on board!
Regarding the new structure, Tony has started on some code, but I'm not sure how far he has got.
I was particularly impressed with Peter Schaffter's idea that you should be able to save a score order template from the Create Instruments dialogue. Would it be a lot of work to add a button to do this?
I think I am now done with the instruments.xml file.
There is still a whole plethora of ethnic drums which need adding from the MusicXML sound list, but I feel we now have the main use covered.
I have moved the Plucked Strings group so that it is now last in the "Other Instruments" orchestral section and so is next to the Strings group.
The 3 Viola da Gambas in the Create Score dialogue were caused by someone adding tablature instruments to the main list at some point with an <init> tag. These have all now got proper long and short name tags and also a trackName tag.
Now this one escaped my notice when I did the DTD so I have left them in the file, in case they are being read by the Tablature system.
If they are not being used by this or another part of MuseScore, then I suggest they are removed.
I shall now turn my attention to the default templates, which, I think may be an important part of the Create Score dialogue in future.