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2 | Mup Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) | |
3 | ||
4 | 1. Frequent questions for those who have not yet used Mup | |
5 | ||
6 | 1.1 Q: What makes Mup unique? Why should I consider using | |
7 | Mup? | |
8 | ||
9 | 1. Mup provides high quality music output at very low | |
10 | cost. You can download Mup and try it out for | |
11 | yourself. | |
12 | ||
13 | 2. Mup is available ready-to-run for several computer | |
14 | operating systems, and is also available in source | |
15 | form, so that it can be run on almost any kind of | |
16 | computers, including Windows, Apple, Linux or Unix. | |
17 | ||
18 | 3. If you prefer a command line interface, Mup provides | |
19 | that, and doesn't require using a mouse or learning a | |
20 | new editor; you can just create a Mup input file using | |
21 | any text editor of your choice. However, if you | |
22 | prefer an interface with menus and integrated editor, | |
23 | the companion Mupmate program provides that. | |
24 | ||
25 | 4. Mup input can be easily generated or manipulated by | |
26 | another program. Input files are typically small, so | |
27 | it doesn't take a long time to create them. Since they | |
28 | are ordinary text they can easily be moved to other | |
29 | systems, even if the other system uses a different | |
30 | operating system. For example, it would be easy to | |
31 | email a song in Mup format to a friend, and if they | |
32 | had Mup, they could then print it out or play it via | |
33 | MIDI. Since Mup output is standard PostScript or | |
34 | standard MIDI, output files are also portable to | |
35 | almost any operating system. | |
36 | ||
37 | 5. Mup handles page layout details, but provides ways to | |
38 | alter the layout if you wish. It has the power to | |
39 | handle complicated scores, and can produce | |
40 | professional-quality output quickly. | |
41 | ||
42 | 6. Mup's ability to produce MIDI output can be very | |
43 | helpful for "proof listening" to your music, which is | |
44 | usually a very effective way to spot errors that you | |
45 | might miss by just looking at the score, | |
46 | ||
47 | 1.2 Q: Will Mup run on my computer? | |
48 | ||
49 | We currently provide Mup in ready-to-run form for Windows | |
50 | and Linux x86 systems. A port of Mup for the Macintosh is | |
51 | available from | |
52 | http://www.uni-paderborn.de/cs/Michael.Thies.html and a | |
53 | version for OS/2 is available from http://homepages.tu- | |
54 | darmstadt.de/~st002279/os2/html/mup.html | |
55 | ||
56 | If you use a different operating system, Mup source code is | |
57 | also available, so if you have a C compiler, you can | |
58 | probably compile and run Mup. It has been run using several | |
59 | versions of UNIX on x86, Sun, Digital, Silicon Graphics, and | |
60 | other systems. It has also been run under OS/2, as well as | |
61 | on an Amiga. An ANSI-C compiler is recommended, but not | |
62 | required. Under MS-DOS, you will need a memory extender, | |
63 | and at least a 32-bit compiler is strongly recommended. Mup | |
64 | will run on a 386, but at least a 486 is recommended for | |
65 | best performance. If you try to compile Mup and have | |
66 | problems, please let us know at support@arkkra.com We'd like | |
67 | to make it portable to as many computer system types as | |
68 | possible. The companion Mupmate program requires a C++ | |
69 | compiler and the FLTK toolkit. | |
70 | ||
71 | 1.3 Q: How long will it take to learn how to use Mup? | |
72 | ||
73 | This will vary from person to person. A person who has | |
74 | experience with computer languages will probably pick up Mup | |
75 | more quickly, but such knowledge is not necessary. Mup has | |
76 | a broad array of features, so if you want to learn how to | |
77 | use every feature that Mup has to offer, this may take | |
78 | several days. (The Mup User's Guide, which explains all the | |
79 | features, and includes many examples, is about 150 pages | |
80 | long.) However, once you get Mup installed, you can start | |
81 | experimenting with Mup after reading the first few pages of | |
82 | the User's Guide, and it should take no more than a few | |
83 | hours to feel comfortable with the basics, enough to enter | |
84 | simple songs and get professional-looking output. The | |
85 | User's Guide includes many examples, and is provided both as | |
86 | a PostScript file that you can print out on paper, and as | |
87 | HTML files with hundreds of hypertext links, that you can | |
88 | view with your Web browser. The Mup installation package | |
89 | contains several sample files and a template file to help | |
90 | you get started. You can also download sample songs from | |
91 | ftp://ftp.arkkra.com/pub/music | |
92 | ||
93 | 1.4 Q: How long will it take to enter music? | |
94 | ||
95 | This will vary greatly, depending on a number of factors, | |
96 | such as how complicated the music is, how much experience | |
97 | you have had with using Mup, how fast you type, etc. An | |
98 | experienced Mup user can typically enter simple music in | |
99 | less than 15 minutes per page, but very complex music can | |
100 | often take over an hour, especially if you like to make a | |
101 | lot of adjustments to make things look just exactly the way | |
102 | you want. | |
103 | ||
104 | 1.5 Q: How did Mup and Arkkra Enterprises come about? | |
105 | ||
106 | We are musicians and computer programmers who wanted a music | |
107 | publication program that would produce very high-quality | |
108 | output with a minimum amount of fuss. We wrote the Mup | |
109 | program for our own use, and continue to use it for all our | |
110 | own compositions. When other people expressed an interest in | |
111 | getting a copy of Mup, we formed Arkkra Enterprises to set | |
112 | up a Web site to make Mup available as shareware to anyone | |
113 | who wants it. We rely on the shareware registration fee | |
114 | that you pay to cover the cost of maintaining a Web site and | |
115 | providing support to answer questions. We add new features | |
116 | based on user suggestions, and once you register, we will | |
117 | notify you of any future free upgrades. | |
118 | ||
119 | 1.6 Q: How do I pay for Mup? | |
120 | ||
121 | Fill out the registration form and send the form and (US) | |
122 | $29 in cash, check, or money order to the address given on | |
123 | the form. If you are writing a check from a bank outside | |
124 | the United States, please make it out in the bank's local | |
125 | currency in an amount equivalent to 29 U.S. dollars; our | |
126 | bank will not accept US-dollar-denominated checks from non- | |
127 | US banks. If you wish to pay via credit card, we have an | |
128 | arrangement with setSystems to handle paying for Mup with a | |
129 | credit card. They are able to handle transactions in many | |
130 | different currencies. setSystems is part of Digital River, | |
131 | a well-known e-commerce company. As soon as we receive your | |
132 | payment, we will email the registration information to you. | |
133 | Once you register, we will notify you via email of future | |
134 | Mup versions, and you can upgrade to any future versions of | |
135 | Mup for free. Once you have registered, you also can join | |
136 | the Mup users mailing list if you wish, at no additional | |
137 | charge. We only use your address to send you information | |
138 | about Mup; it is our policy to not give out names, email, or | |
139 | street addresses to anyone else. | |
140 | ||
141 | -------------------------------------------------- | |
142 | ||
143 | 2. Frequent questions from Mup users | |
144 | ||
145 | 2.1 Q. Is there a mailing list for Mup users? | |
146 | ||
147 | Yes. There is a "majordomo" mailing list available | |
148 | exclusively to registered Mup users. It provides a forum | |
149 | where you can ask or answer questions, get tips on how other | |
150 | people are using Mup, etc. | |
151 | ||
152 | 2.2 Q. Can I put Mup output into some other document? | |
153 | ||
154 | There is a tool that comes with Ghostscript, called | |
155 | "ps2epsi" that converts a PostScript file to an Encapsulated | |
156 | PostScript file, which can then be imported into other | |
157 | documents. | |
158 | ||
159 | 2.3 Q: Can Mup produce PDF files? | |
160 | ||
161 | Not directly, but since Mup produces PostScript output, you | |
162 | can easily convert the output to PDF format using the ps2pdf | |
163 | utility that comes with Ghostscript. | |
164 | ||
165 | 2.4 Q. Why is the first score indented differently than the | |
166 | others? | |
167 | ||
168 | The first score of a piece of music is traditionally | |
169 | indented somewhat more than subsequent scores, so that's | |
170 | what Mup does by default. It does that by setting the | |
171 | default label parameter to a few spaces, whereas it sets the | |
172 | default for the label2 parameter to an empty string. If you | |
173 | don't want the indentation, you can set | |
174 | label="" | |
175 | ||
176 | 2.5 Q: Is is possible to specify a pickup measure? | |
177 | ||
178 | Yes. You use "space" on all voices. For example, | |
179 | 1: 2.s; 4e; | |
180 | 2: 2.s; 4c; | |
181 | will produce a pickup measure with just a quarter note in | |
182 | it. | |
183 | ||
184 | 2.6 Q: Is it possible to display a tempo marking of the | |
185 | form '(N = 120)' where N is a note symbol, like a | |
186 | quarter note? | |
187 | ||
188 | Yes. Try something like | |
189 | rom above all: 1 "( \(sm4n) = 120 )"; | |
190 | ||
191 | 2.7 Q: Can Mup take a MIDI file as input? | |
192 | ||
193 | No. However, it is possible to write a program that reads a | |
194 | MIDI file and outputs a file that can be input to Mup. Two | |
195 | programs that do this, called "mtm" and "midi2mup" have been | |
196 | donated by Mup users. They are limited, and not supported | |
197 | by Arkkra Enterprises, but may be useful for some people. | |
198 | Check out the programs donated by Mup users. | |
199 | ||
200 | 2.8 Q: What are some of the shorthands that can be used to | |
201 | reduce typing? | |
202 | ||
203 | There are many shorthands available. Some of the most useful | |
204 | are: | |
205 | ||
206 | - When the time value of a chord is the same as that of | |
207 | the previous chord in the measure, it can be omitted. | |
208 | If all pitch values of a chord are the same as the | |
209 | previous chord, they can be omitted. For example: | |
210 | 1: 4c; 4c; 4ceg; 4ceg; | |
211 | is the same as | |
212 | 1: 4c; ; ceg; ; | |
213 | ||
214 | - If several voices have the same music data, they can be | |
215 | given on a single line. | |
216 | 1-3 1-2: mr; | |
217 | is equivalent to | |
218 | 1 1: mr; | |
219 | 1 2: mr; | |
220 | 2 1: mr; | |
221 | 2 2: mr; | |
222 | 3 1: mr; | |
223 | 3 2: mr; | |
224 | A similar shorthand works for text and music symbols: | |
225 | rom above 1-4: 3 "mf"; // staffs 1 through 4 | |
226 | < below 2-3: 4 til 3m+2; // staffs 2 and 3 | |
227 | mussym 1-5: 1 "ferm"; // staffs 1 through 5 | |
228 | ||
229 | - If several chords in a row have the same items in | |
230 | square brackets before the chords, only the first must | |
231 | have everything included. By giving an ellipsis after | |
232 | the ] the items in brackets will be repeated for the | |
233 | rest of the measure or until cancelled. Thus the | |
234 | following lines are equivalent: | |
235 | 1: [with .] c; [with .] d; [with .] e; | |
236 | 1: [with .]... c; d; e; | |
237 | ||
238 | 2.9 Q: The Mupprnt command doesn't seem to work right. What | |
239 | do I do? | |
240 | ||
241 | You may need to edit the mupprnt file to make sure the | |
242 | variables and paths are set to match where things are | |
243 | installed on your system. In particular, | |
244 | ||
245 | - GS_DIR needs to be set to the directory which contains | |
246 | the Ghostscript font files (*.gsf) and the other | |
247 | Ghostscript setup files (gs_*.ps). | |
248 | ||
249 | - GS_DEVICE needs to be set to the proper type to match | |
250 | your printer type. | |
251 | ||
252 | - The path to Mup must be correct | |
253 | ||
254 | - The path to Ghostscript (gs or gs386 on MS-DOS/Windows | |
255 | system) must be correct. | |
256 | ||
257 | - On MS-DOS/Windows systems, dos4gw.exe must be in your | |
258 | PATH. | |
259 | If you are using a viewer such as GSview or gv, you may want | |
260 | to use its print feature rather than using mupprnt. | |
261 | ||
262 | 2.10 Q: On MS-DOS, the Mupdisp command comes back with | |
263 | ghostscript error 1. What do I do? | |
264 | ||
265 | Check your config.sys file. You need to have a line like | |
266 | files=10 | |
267 | where the number after the equals sign is greater than or | |
268 | equal to 9. | |
269 | ||
270 | Also, make sure gs386.exe exists and is in your PATH. If you | |
271 | are running Mup from MS-DOS directly or from a DOS prompt | |
272 | under Windows, make sure you installed the DOS version of | |
273 | Ghostscript, not the Windows version. If you are using | |
274 | Mupmate, or Winmup, make sure you installed the Windows | |
275 | version of Ghostscript, not the MS-DOS version. | |
276 | ||
277 | 2.11 Q: If I use Mup for a language other than English, | |
278 | will it handle the letters that are not used in | |
279 | English? | |
280 | ||
281 | Mup handles most common non-ASCII characters. If your | |
282 | keyboard does not allow you to enter them directly, you can | |
283 | enter them by name, such as \(a:) for an 'a' with 2 dots | |
284 | over it. The User's Guide section on text strings gives a | |
285 | complete list of supported non-ASCII characters. | |
286 | ||
287 | 2.12 Q: Under Linux, Mupdisp says it can't open | |
288 | /dev/console. What do I do? | |
289 | ||
290 | The svga library used by Mupdisp in non-X-windows mode | |
291 | requires write permission to the console. To allow this: | |
292 | ||
293 | - Make Mupdisp setuid to root: | |
294 | chown root mupdisp | |
295 | chmod 4755 mupdisp | |
296 | ||
297 | 2.13 Q: What if I have more questions about Mup? | |
298 | ||
299 | Send us email at support@arkkra.com We welcome any comments | |
300 | and questions about Mup. Normally, you should have no | |
301 | problem contacting us this way. In the unlikely event you | |
302 | get a "rejected" reply when sending email, this is because | |
303 | excessive "spam" (junk mail) has been received from your | |
304 | domain at some time in the past, and our Internet service | |
305 | provider has installed a "spam blocker." In this case, you | |
306 | will have to send email from another address or send paper | |
307 | mail. |