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learn abc
how to ...
... a growing series of articles on using and understanding abc.abc examples
... a whole series of abc examples starting from notes, beams, etc right through to some fairly complex tunes.abc tutorial
... a tutorial put together by Steve Mansfield.abc-faq
... a list of frequently asked questions put together by John Chambers.the abc standard
To find out even more about the notation have a look at the abc standard V1.6 which describes the (simple) rules of abc (note, however, that this was written by Chris Walshaw for abc2mtex and so doesn't include some of the extensions found in other more recent packages) [une traduction (en français) de cette page peut être trouvée ici].
A version of the standard has since been developed in BNF format by Henrik Norbeck and abc has been registered as a MIME type by Steve Allen which may help in triggering the development of web browser plug-ins which can process abc files.
A new version of the standard has been discussed for some time on the abcusers mail list and a draft standard - version 2.0 is available. (This is partially based on the draft standard - version 1.7.6, the last version that Chris Walshaw worked on.)
Most recently, Guido Gonzato published a revision of the standard called ABCPlus. This covers enhancements to the standard, mostly notably those included in abcm2ps & abcMIDI - two of the most sophisticated and popular pieces of abc software, and the ABCPlus website contains a comprehensive user manual.
Have your say
Unfortunately, this situation - of no definitive standard - has gone on for far too long. (Apologies!)
Software developers are unsure which features to implement and users are unsure which are supported by a given package.
Accordingly, I would like the abc user community as a whole to vote on which standard they would like adopted so that we can resolve the situation once and for all. When enough votes have been cast, I will publish the selected version as the definitive standard and update this page to reflect the popular choice.
Of course, (as now) there will be no absolute requirement for software developers to stick to the standard. However, with a definitive published standard, developers can state which features they support and if they provide any extensions. Meanwhile, users should find it easier to create and modify abc files that can be used portably by a range of software packages.
Please take a moment to vote on your choice. You can also vote in the forums (in the event of a split decision, votes in the forums, coming from registered users, may carry slightly more weight).
Thank you.
Chris Walshaw (September 09)
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