ABCWIN Package
                               May 4, 1995

The files in this directory are an informal compilation of stripped-down
software that is intended for Windows users to take .abc music notation text
files and convert them to viewable and printable music notation.

WARNING: Setting this up requires familiarity with a number of aspects
of MSDOS.  A Windows-only user will most likely get lost doing this.  This
is not a user-friendly setup process.  Anyone who can contribute better
installation instructions is heartily welcome.

All enclosed software was written by other people, and credit is given in the
appropriate read-me files 00README.TXT (LaTex), SB39TEX.DOC (sbTeX),
SB39TM01.RME (big sbTeX for 386 machines), MUSICTEX.RME (MusicTex), and
README1.4 (ABC2MTEX).  The reason this package was created was because the
process of setting all those packages up from scratch, including the obstacle
of required FTP access, was a major hindrance to wider usage of the abc
musical notation, especially centered around the exchanging of Irish dance
tunes on IRTRAD-L.

Necessary files:   ------------------------------------
(if you're downloading this from celtic.stanford.edu, they're all in
\pub\tunes\abcwin)
(if you're downloading this from CTAN, you'll find dviwin29 under
\dviware\dviwin)

1. readme.1st      (this file)
2. dviwin29.zip
3. abcwin.zip
4. { abcfonts.zip    (if you have a 360-dots-per-inch printer)
  { (or)
  { not360.zip      (fonts for other printer resolutions than 360 dpi).
5. pkz204g.exe     (if you don't already have an unzipper of some kind)

                  ------------------------------------

       More fonts (and other optional TeX-related stuff) are available
       via FTP from the CTAN archives:
      (Texas) ftp.shsu.edu
    (England) ftp.tex.ac.uk
    (Germany) ftp.dante.de

       If at some point you use TeX for something more ambitious than
       just printing usrguide.tex and folk tunes, you'll run into all
       sorts of file-not-found errors, but you can get the missing files at
       the above sites.  The Texas site has a search utility if you access
       it via the Web: http://www.shsu.edu/cgi-bin/ctan-index

                  -------------------------------------


                               INSTALLATION

(If you don't have PKUNZIP, there's a copy of PKZ204G.EXE in \pub\tunes\abcwin,
and you just have to run it, i.e., issue the MSDOS command pkz204g, probably
within an empty directory that you've copied it to.  Read the documentation.)

1)      Begin with dviwin29.zip, unzip it in an empty directory and follow
       the directions in README, especially parts 1 and 2.

2)      Then unzip either abcfonts.zip or not360.zip, according to what
       resolution printer you have.  These PK fonts are necessary for, and
       are explained in, DVI2WIN.  You need to tell DVI2WIN where they are.

Now you can test the Windows part of all this.  Test DVI2WIN with the test
document included with dviwin29.zip (you should get one page with an economics-
related graph and some text).  Then test DVI2WIN with the file
\abcwin\abc2mtex\usrguide.dvi
If you get a blank screen or garbage then DVI2WIN didn't find the .pk fonts
which you unzipped in step 2 above.  Fix this first (see the DVI2WIN docs).

3)      Unzip abcwin in any empty directory and follow the directions in
       ABC2DVI.TXT.

4)      Then, after following all those directions (yes, it may take a while
       to do everything), you should be able to issue the command

latex usrguide  (from inside your new ABC2MTEX directory)
       (do this twice, ignore all the complaints from TeX the first pass)

       then in Windows, open DVI2WIN, and with that, open the file
       usrguide.dvi that you just created.  Read this, which is
       Chris Walshaw's ABC2MTEX ver 1.4 manual, and try printing it.
       This is also a good test that your whole setup is working.


                               WHAT'S WHERE

Inside \abcwin you should have:
       ..\bigfmt (2 format files necessary for TeX and laTeX to run)
       ..\abc2mtex (Chris Walshaw's ABC2MTEX v 1.4)
               I also store all my abc tunes in this directory,
               with suffix ".abc"
       ..\fonttfms (font files necessary for TeX to generate .dvi files)
       ..\inputs  (TeX macro files called during .dvi generation)

Then in your \texfonts directory are all your .pk fonts divided up into
       subdirectories named by their dpi resolutions.


                              EXAMPLE OF USAGE

You can now take, for example, emailed tunes like:

X:1
T:Off to California
M:4/4
R:hornpipe
E:7
K:G
(3DEF|GFGB AGED|GBdg e2 (3def|gfgd edBG|ABAG E2 (3DEF|GFGB AGED|\
GBdg e2 (3def|gfgd edBG|(3ABA GF G2::d|gfeg fedf|edef edB2|\
(3def gd edBG|ABAG E2 (3DEF|GFGB AGED|GBdg e2 (3def|gfgd edBG|(3ABA GF G3:|

cut and paste them into a text file, (try that with this example) run it
through ABC2MTEX and then TeX (see below) from within a DOS session under
Windows (you know, the big MS-DOS icon in the Main menu), jump over to
DVI2WIN and instantly (depending on the speed of your computer) see real
music!  If you don't mind reading off of your screen, you have now eliminated
all paper from the process of receiving an email and learning the tune in it.

An example of the commands you would give using the above hornpipe, put in a
text file called EXAMPLE.ABC in the directory c:\abcwin\abc2mtex\, if you're
set up in drive C:, looks like this:

C:\ABCWIN\ABC2MTEX>abc2mtex m example
C:\ABCWIN\ABC2MTEX>tex music

That's it!  Then, back in Windows, use DVI2WIN to open the file
"c:\abcwin\abc2mtex\music.dvi", which TeX just generated for you.

Alan Ng
[email protected]
Madison, WI

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