Re: A working MusicXML engraver?

> Sibelius 6.1 is over 6 years old, and is not even the latest free update 
> for the Sibelius 6.x line.
> 
> Maybe you should try a more recent version of Sibelius?

I cannot upgrade Finale beyond 2012, and I am sure I cannot upgrade Sibelius
beyond 6.2 (the last free update offered for 6.x), because newer versions of
these applications require newer versions of MacOS; and I cannot upgrade
MacOS beyond 10.6.8, because newer versions of MacOS require newer Apple
hardware; and I cannot upgrade my hardware any further, because Apple did
not design it to be upgraded beyond its current level.

The sibelius.com Web site says the current release of Sibelius requires
MacOS 10.9 or later.  I'm downloading the 6.2 update now (it will take
several hours, because I live in a rural area), but even if it will install
and run on my Mac system, it too is surely several years old.

Sibelius, like Finale (and most commercial MS Windows and MacOS
applications, and MS Windows and MacOS themselves), shackles users to the
upgrade treadmill.  That is why I run only Open Source OSs and applications
on all of my computers, except when there is no alternative.  There too I am
forced onto the upgrade treadmill at times (I had to upgrade Ubuntu Linux
earlier this year to be able to run a version of Firefox recent enough to
access an essential Web site), but I am not forced to pay hundreds of
dollars for new, buggy software releases every year or two, or to replace my
hardware every couple of years if I don't want to.  (Yes, Open Source
software has bugs too, but they get fixed on a timescale determined by the
community and not by a single vendor.)

> If you have full reproduction for a MusicXML import bug, it's useful to 
> ensure that the repro is reported on http://sibelius.ideascale.com/

sibelius.ideascale.com is a "feedback community": I don't understand what
connection it has with Avid's developers, since it's not an avid.com or
sibelius.com system.  I tried to access the site, but the very first page
stalled in downloading, most likely because it requires a newer Web browser
than I can install on my Mac (see above).  In any case, do you have reason
to think that Avid will even look at bugs reported in Sibelius 6.2?  That
would be quite exceptional for a maker of commercial software.  On the other
hand, Avid did provide me with an older version of Sibelius when I requested
one for compatibility testing, which MakeMusic would not do for Finale,
despite my having paid for licensed copies of newer versions in both cases.

Meanwhile, this is a nice example supporting my strong advocacy of open file
formats, even undocumented ones.  If Sibelius and Finale didn't deliberately
lock up their native file formats, third parties would have a shot at
creating their own, better importers and exporters.  I made this point on
the mup users discussion list recently: Finale and mup have compatible
models of headers / footers / page numbering / left/right page adjustment
that are more semantically oriented than that of MusicXML, so a direct
Finale-to-mup translator could do a better job than one that uses MusicXML
as an intermediate format; but because Finale has encrypted their file
format as of 2014 (and Sibelius has always encrypted theirs, at least as far
back as I have samples), such a translator cannot be written now, at least
not one that can be written without a NDA and used without running a
sufficiently recent licensed copy of Finale.  (The situation in Sibelius is
only a bit better: ManuScript plug-ins do not require a NDA, but they don't
have access to all of the score information, at least as of 6.x, and they
also require running Sibelius.)

If MusicXML or something inspired by it can reach maturity as a
well-specified, well-implemented standard, users will have alternatives to
this situation.  Despite the serious issues I've encountered with MusicXML
in both design and practice, I am still optimistic that this may be
possible.

Finally, I've received a number of helpful suggestions for where to look for
an existing (or nearly-existing :-)) MusicXML renderer.  Thanks to all who
responded to my request.

						L Peter Deutsch

Received on Monday, 30 November 2015 15:10:35 UTC