LenMus project

A library for rendering music scores

2012-02-19T19:38:00.000+01:00

Long time ago, while developing Phonascus, several times I thought that developing software to render scores was a lot of work and that it was a pity that all that code was only to be used by Phonascus. So I thought that it would be useful to move all that code to a library, so that it could be shared and used by other applications. I also remember having received some emails asking about this possibility.

Two years ago I decided to do it and started to write the Lomse library. It now fulfills the requirements for LenMus Phonascus program and has been extensively tested and integrated in that program.

Therefore, I'm glad to announce the availability of a new library (the Lomse library). It bundles all stuff needed for adding music scores renderization and playback capabilities to your C++ applications. It is free open source (BSD 2-clause) platform independent C++ code. It is ready to be used in your applications.

As you would have noticed, I have started to give visibility to the Lomse library in the LenMus website.And during the last two weeks I've created and published tutorials for Linux and wxWidgets, and Windows tutorials will come soon. Also I have started creating and publishing the 'Hacking Guide', that is, the documentation oriented to all people interested in learning about the library design: architecture, internals, rationale for some decisions, etc.

Hope you enjoy the library and use it in your projects! If you would like to join the project and contribute to the development of this library you are welcome.

What is going on at LenMus?

2012-02-05T21:54:00.001+01:00

It's been two years without a new release of LenMus Phonascus. You might be wondering what is happening. The answer is simple: I've been rewriting all the code!

LenMus code had some problems that prevented me from advancing faster and from adding more features. After considering the pros and the cons, I finally decided to stop, redesign the program and rewrite all the code again. Three were my main objectives:

First, to isolate and move to a platform independent library all the code related to analysing, parsing and rendering scores. The idea was that this code could be used by any other projects. Also, to get the best code quality, I liked to develop it using the Test Driven Design (TDD) methodology. This would help to create bug-free, self-testing code. It was a great opportnity for me to learn TDD.

Second objective was to remove the need to use a web browser to display the eBooks. Until now, the exercises were displayed as HTML pages by using an internal, very limited, web browser. Due to its limitations and to the hacks I had to do to display scores, LenMus Phonascus had some problems of difficult solution, ranging from difficult to solve problems with scaling and zooming, to an unexpected reported problem that I was never able to reproduce (https://sourceforge.net/projects/lenmus/forums/forum/499979/topic/2966045).

An finally, the third objective was to redesign the score editor.

I started to work on this by January 2010, and currently the situation is as follows:

    a) All code related to scores has been isolated and moved to a platform independent library (the Lomse library), so that it can be used by other projects. Also, the LDP score description language has been extended so that it can now describe not only a score but full documents, with any content: texts, images, scores, exercises, etc. This library is released under BSD license, allowing commercial use. It's development and maintenance is now another sub-project. I have started publishing documentation. A tutorial with usage examples will came very soon.

    b) I have redesigned the way in which exercises are created and displayed. Now the LDP score description language has been widened to describe not only scores but full documents, with any content: texts, images, scores, exercises, etc. and all content is rendered natively by Lomse library.

    c) Most of LenMus Phonascus program has been rewritten (only the score editor is pending), and first beta release (without the editor) will take place soon.

The new website is here!

2012-01-22T17:22:00.001+01:00

I'm pleased to announce the publication, today, of a new design for LenMus's website.

After many years with nearly the same design, and on preparation of the release 5.0 of LenMus Phonascus and of the new Lomse library, I have redesigned the website. It's not completely finished; there is still some work to do, specially in publishing documentation about the LenMus projects. And there are missing pages that still needs review.

The layout has changed quite a lot. Since the last site, the general use of wider screens means I've been able to make the site a little wider than it was. Also, because of the imminent release of the Lomse library it has been necessary to reorganize the site. Now the main page is an index of project, and each project has an specific sub-site.

I've also created a blog to have an open and informal communication channel with anyone interested in the LenMus project. A place to learn about what's going on in the "backstage", to give you a preview of what's coming, and to receive your feedback on these issues.

All in all, LenMus project has moved on a long way over its initial design and the new website is testament to that. Hope you like it and, as always, your comments and suggestions are welcomed!

Why this blog?

2011-12-08T21:57:00.000+01:00

Time ago there where a News section in the Lenmus website. But the only news where announcements of new releases. The real news, comments and announcements about the project were published in the lenmus mail list, for an extremely narrow audience.

By starting this blog I would like to change this. My idea is to have an open and informal communication channel with anyone interested in the Lenmus project. A place to learn about what's going on in the "backstage", to give you a preview of what's coming, and to receive your feedback on these issues. I'm thinking about:

    - Monthly development recaps.
    - Release schedule updates.
    - Occasional polls and talks about upcoming features.
    - Polls and articles about certain development issues.
    - And just my thoughts and feelings about the project.

Feel free to comment!