mml2abc

A library that transpiles Music Macro Language into ABC music notation.

Demo

https://cat2151.github.io/mml2abc/dist/

Features

• A simple text-to-text JavaScript library
• Generates ABC music notation for abcjs from MML
  • abcjs is a library that renders musical scores in the browser and plays them using a SoundFont GM software synthesizer.
• What is mml2abc used for?
  • For playing sound in the browser
    • For writing MML and playing it with abcjs
  • For writing MML and playing sound in Obsidian

Requirement

• When playing in a browser
  • Sound can be played by writing a simple index.html.
• When playing in Obsidian
  • Under development.
• When playing from the command line on Windows
  • Not investigated.
    • Considered out of scope. Priority is given to “playing MML sound in Obsidian”.
      • Since abcjs can play sound in Obsidian (which uses Chromium), there might be a way. Not investigated.
      • Are there any command-line software synthesizers that can output audio from ABC music notation, not just abcjs? Not investigated.

Installation

• How to use mml2abc on a webpage?
  • A sample has been prepared. Please refer to easymmlabc.
• How to play MML sound in Obsidian?
  • Under development. mml2abc is planned to be integrated into a fork of the Obsidian ABC.JS plugin.

Usage

• Import mml2abc and pass arguments to the function.
• For specific examples, please refer to easymmlabc.

Note

Priorities of this project

• Proof of concept
  • Prioritizes proof of concept over advanced features, high performance, high reliability, extensibility, stability, and version compatibility.
• Playability
  • Prioritizes maintaining the ability to produce at least basic sound.
• The ability to provide a MML string to a function and obtain an abcjs-playable string.
  • Prioritizes maintaining simplicity by not adding more complex features.
• Achieving “playing MML sound in Obsidian”.
  • More specifically, this relates to the Obsidian ABC.JS plugin.
    • We plan to fork the Obsidian ABC.JS plugin and integrate mml2abc in the future.
• Prioritizes a simple MML format that inherits a subset of existing standards.
  • It will be a subset of SiON (chords will be a subset of Z-MUSIC).
  • The dialect name is mmlabc.

Responsibilities

• Creating mml2abc.pegjs
  • is the responsibility of this repository.
• Creating a mechanism to easily use mml2abc
  • will be handled by easymmlabc.
• Creating a mechanism to use mml2abc in Obsidian
  • will be handled in a separate repository, to be created in the future.

mml2abc Development Procedures

• Developing the MML parser with TDD using peggyjs + Jest is easy. I hope it can be of some reference, and I plan to write more detailed instructions in the future.
• Jest is used for TDD.
  • Using the VSCode Jest extension
    • Automatic tests run (red/green) just by writing tests and peggyjs, making it easy.
• chokidar is used to connect peggyjs and Jest.
  • Updating peggyjs automatically generates ES modules (for browsers) and CommonJS (for TDD & servers), and Jest’s automated tests run, making it easy.
• For printf debugging of peggyjs, control Jest’s silent and verbose modes (allows viewing console.log in VSCode’s Jest terminal).
  • Printf debugging is occasionally necessary, so having it available makes things easier.
• webpack-dev-server is used for live reloading (hot reloading) of browser pages.
  • Issues can be discovered by actually playing in the browser (e.g., unexpected abcjs behavior), so having live reloading makes things easier.
• First, set up the environment after cloning.
  • This includes installing Node.js related components, running npm install, and installing VSCode and its Jest extension.
• To start daily development, just follow these steps: ``` code . npm run watch