parser help
Joe
I'm a retiring guitar teacher & have recently closed my guitar school
(Pick Happens Guitar School in Orange, CA -- see pickhappens_com). I'm
excited about starting a (free) web site that will share my large
library of original song arrangements. I'm also gaining support from
other teachers (worldwide) to contribute their gems in an open
community kind of teaching environment.
I've been using Power Tab for a long time and a large part of my
library is already notated in Power Tab. I really need a song player
like Power Tab but that can be embedded in a web page. That way I can
include playing tips and fingering text beside the actual music and
tab notation. I have considered using Scorch (from Sibelius) but that
would involve redoing countless projects and critically delay the
opening of the site. I was very excited to find the source code for
Power Tab but my programming experience is limited to Visual Basic 6.
I have just now updated to Visual Studio 2005 for the sole purpose of
using this C++ source code but I admit I don't really know what I'm
doing. I couldn't get the C++ code to compile (many errors).
I've underestimated the complexity of the most important part of what
I want to share & I'm in way over my head on this. I desperately need
some big time help. Can you help me getting this C++ code to run? Can
you point me to some help?
Are you a programmer that is willing to save the day and help the
guitar community in a big way by taking on this project and sharing
it?
Should I post this on the Power Tab User forum?
Your thoughts?
joneric.w...@gmail.com
haven't done c++ in about 10 years.
Turns out I remember just enough to be able to read c++ code, but I
couldn't write it to save my life. :-)
The power tab reader code which you've downloaded uses both MFC (which
is Microsoft specific) as well as
a third party library called wxWidgets. Some of the reasons why I'm
writing a java version are:
1. Visual Studio costs money. Java is free.
2. Since the power tab editor uses wxWidgets and MFC, it will only run
on windows.
Java runs on windows, linux, mac, solaris, etc.
3. It is easy to re-use the java code in a web app (I'm completely
ignorant on how to do this with c++, but I have to imagine its
possible as well).
Perhaps someone who knows c++ and in particular Microsoft's version of
it and they can help you.
Godd Luck.
It seems like a very worthwhile goal.
Dummy
The parser code is not the full PT code, it only contains the code to
read and write .ptb files. This means that you'll have to write your
own drawing code, which is a fairly comprehensive task. It'll be even
more difficult without knowing c++. To be honest, I haven't a clue
what would be necessary in order to get a Web plugin like you want up
and running. It's not something I've ever worked on. Cool idea though.
If you wanted to put something up quickly, you could use a pdf writer
to dump the PT output to a .pdf file, and export the sound to MIDI, or
mp3. Users wouldn't be able to follow along in real time, but it's
better than nothing.
Brad
Dummy
framework - it's only available on Windows, although at one time it
was available on the Mac.
Power Tab Parser was written using wxWidgets, which is a cross-
platform c++ framework, so you should be able to build it on Linux/Mac/
etc. If I'm not mistaken, you can use wxWidgets with VC++ Express, so
there's no cost involved either.
Brad
On Jul 8, 10:40 am, "joneric_wennerst...@yahoo.com"
Dummy
There's an article on creating ActiveX plugins here:
http://www.codeproject.com/com/CompleteActiveX.asp?df=100&forumid=318045&fr=26
Brad
allpow...@gmail.com
for the power tab editor and recompile it as an activex control? (Just
display and play functions.) I would be more than willing to serve up
the control if this were possible. I think this is what all of us
working towards, is something web based.
On Jul 8, 8:21 pm, Dummy <dummy...@power-tab.net> wrote:
> Looks like Scorch is made using ActiveX technology.
>
> There's an article on creating ActiveX plugins here:http://www.codeproject.com/com/CompleteActiveX.asp?df=100&forumid=318...
Joe
already got a great project going. Good luck with it!
Brad -- I didn't even realize what I downloaded was without drawing
routines (ptparser, duh). I guess I'm a bigger "Dummy" than you :)
Thanks for slapping me in the face and waking me up with that! Thanks
for your other tip too, but I've decided that I have way too much
quality content to cheapen it by putting it in a pdf file. I'm staying
focused on solving this problem because I don't want to just share the
music as much as I want to actually help players learn how to play it.
I had already found that great ActiveX link you posted and I very well
could be spending a lot of time there (thanks).
I've already invested in Visual Studio 2005 (for C++) so I'll keep
trying to get the parser running. I'm having trouble grabbing the
WxWidgets concept though. I need to do a lot more reading at their web
site. I'm not really a "Dummy" as I was kidding about but I'm very
ignorant about a lot of 'newfangled' programming concepts. I've got an
incredible amount of catching up to do. I'm anxious to just get this
compiled because my son Jeremy thinks he might be able to use Flash to
draw the music notation. Ooooops (one thing at a time).
Thanks again,
I'll keep you posted
Joe
On Jul 8, 5:21 pm, Dummy <dummy...@power-tab.net> wrote:
> Looks like Scorch is made using ActiveX technology.
>
> There's an article on creating ActiveX plugins here:http://www.codeproject.com/com/CompleteActiveX.asp?df=100&forumid=318...
Dummy
provided it works with Linux/Mac browsers.
Brad
On Jul 9, 2:02 am, "allpowert...@gmail.com" <allpowert...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Dummy
with a large set of code that you use on top of standard c++ so that
you can more easily/quickly create apps/perform tasks/etc. Alot of it
is very similar to MFC, with the added bonus of being able to run it
on multiple platforms.
There's a document inside the docs folder that explains how to get
things running on VS 2005.
vstudio2005.txt
I can create a KB article w/pics if you want and upload it to the
site. Might be easier to follow.
Brad
Joe
Play and display music and tab notation for one channel (e.g. channel
1)
Play pause rewind
A way to navigate around the notation pages
Change tempo
resizing capabilities to fit in a web page design
A bonus for me would be to display one channel while listening to
another. That way I could cleanup and simplify the displayed track
while listening to a track designed to sound more realistic. That
would be a great teaching tool.
I can build the ptparser now & have started to plow through the C++
(Greek) routines. That vstudio2005.txt file is what got me up and
running. (Thanks)
Joe
Simone Tellini
> I'll look into it in the future. Would be a cool thing to have,
> provided it works with Linux/Mac browsers.
>
> Brad
>
> On Jul 9, 2:02 am, "allpowert...@gmail.com" <allpowert...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Would it be possible to make some slight changes to the source code
> > for the power tab editor and recompile it as an activex control? (Just
ActiveX controls work only on Windows (and even on that platform, I'd
use it only if *really* necessary).
--
Simone Tellini
http://www.tellini.org
allpow...@gmail.com
Simone it seems you have a lot of the drawing code written. Did you
write this in C++ / Java / Coco? What would you think would be the
best route for an online viewer? (Based on the size of the control,
and availability.) I know you can run windows inside of Macs, and you
can emulate windows programs in Ubuntu. (So maybe ActiveX isn't too
bad of a route.) What would it take to recompile drawing code into
something online based?
Simone Tellini
wrote:
> Simone it seems you have a lot of the drawing code written. Did you
> write this in C++ / Java / Coco? What would you think would be the
my drawing code is mostly C++ (using CoreGraphics API's) mixed with a
little bit of Objective-C
> best route for an online viewer? (Based on the size of the control,
if you want to support all the platforms, an applet would be my first
choice.
Users would need to download an updated JRE to use it with IE though,
as Microsoft's VM is really outdated.
> and availability.) I know you can run windows inside of Macs, and you
> can emulate windows programs in Ubuntu. (So maybe ActiveX isn't too
> bad of a route.)
ActiveX _is_ bad: the only way to use it on non-Windows system is in a
virtual machine (and you still need a Windows license).
Even on Windows, from a security point of view, Java applets are a
better option: a bug in an applet can't do much harm, a bug in an
ActiveX control can be potentially exploited to gain unauthorised
access to the whole machine.
> What would it take to recompile drawing code into
> something online based?
a lot of work :-)
If you start from the Windows code, you'll have to consider that the
programming model is quite different from Java's.