Re: MNX Proposal Overview

My responses to Proposal Overview:

4.3.2.
(2^n) - 1 numerators: I think I am missing something here? Why wouldn't
this just be odd? How would you encode something like a 5:4 tuplet? 5 isn't
of the form (2^n) - 1, so is it disallowed? I read the section on Metrical
timespans (4.3.3.), so maybe I am not understanding why numerators and
denominators are needed in 4.3.2.

"Also, a pure rational number does not maps cleanly..." should say "Also, a
pure rational number does not map cleanly...". (map instead of maps).
Editorially, I think the word "pure" in this sentence is unnecessary, as a
number is either rational or not. There should also be verbiage that these
numbers must be positive.

4.3.3.
Shouldn't "3/8*" mean "three dotted eighth notes"? It currently says "three
dotted quarter notes".

5.1. CSS and style properties
"For example a stylesheet might include a .note selector specifying the
default appearance of all notes." should say "For example, a stylesheet
might include a note selector...". Having the selector .note only applies
to elements where class="note", while the selector note applies to all
<note> elements. The comma is just a style suggestion.

5.3. External stylesheets
Does it make sense to use the .css file extension? Because the proposal is
using units that are not standard within CSS, it might make sense to use a
different file extension. If CSS permits custom units, then there is no
problem, but I didn't think it did. A possible alternative extension might
be .mss, for either "music style sheet" or "MNX style sheet".

5.4. Units
There is a unit "staff lines", but not a unit "staff space". Are these the
same thing? To me, a staff line is the thickness of a staff line, while a
staff space is the distance between two staff lines. Just curious as to
what "staff lines" means in this section.

5.6. Media queries and parts
Suggestion: Replace the <media-name> element with an optional media-name=""
attribute on the <part> element. This can then be reused the same way a
class="" attribute can be. It feels a lot like a class-type attribute
rather than a separate element to me, but that's just my opinion.

6.4. Performance events and event streams
No comment other than I really like this approach. The rgb() analogy is
perfect. I think this also makes it easy to convert MNX to MIDI or other
playback engines.

On Mon, Mar 20, 2017 at 8:39 AM, Joe Berkovitz <joe@noteflight.com> wrote:

> Good morning all,
>
> I am pleased to share with you an initial draft of a proposal for MNX. The
> co-chairs hope this will be a useful starting point for the next revision
> of this group's music notation standard. We look forward to fruitful
> discussions on this list, as well as in person in Frankfurt for those who
> are able to join us in April.
>
> This has been a long time in preparation -- far too long, I am sure -- and
> I have little by way of excuse, even accounting for the unrelated work on
> my plate. However, this pause in output has at least given me the chance to
> think about the ideas presented here.
>
> The phrase "starting point" is appropriate, as this document is still in a
> formative state. While some of the solutions may survive to a later stage
> of work, right now its purpose is to stimulate discussion by placing
> something concrete in front of us to examine and debate. Indeed, the
> co-chairs are not agreed on every element of the proposal, and much less
> would we expect agreement from the community group at large.
>
> To that end, the document also seeks to capture conflicting points of view
> and alternate possibilities, which are noted as issues called out within
> the proposal. Rather than using specification language, the proposal relies
> on examples, to better allow experimentation with various answers to
> problems.
>
> You can find this document at:
>
> https://w3c.github.io/mnx/overview/
>
> The use cases formerly on the wiki have also been moved from the wiki, to
> better track their concordance with the emerging description of MNX:
>
> https://w3c.github.io/mnx/use-cases/
>
> After an initial round of mailing list discussion, we will later move to
> using Github issues to track various points. The github repo is at
> https://github.com/w3c/mnx/ for version control details.
>
> For now, the chairs look forward to some vigorous and positive exchanges
> of views on the public-music-notation-contrib@w3.org list! Please do use
> this contributor list for all discussion, in order to affirm that your
> contributions conform to the W3C IP policy.
>
> Best,
>
> .            .       .    .  . ...Joe
>
> Joe Berkovitz
> Founder
> Noteflight LLC
>
> 49R Day Street
> Somerville MA 02144
> USA
>
> "Bring music to life"
> www.noteflight.com
>