I'm not a programmer, so I can't write one, and I've not seen one anywhere that I've looked. I'd love to have one. I'm on the road a lot, and hearing a melody line (and being able to slow it down so I can follow) is a great way to practice my whistle playing (gotta get something going that isn't bodhran or bones). A laptop computer is not an option, but my iPod is always with me.
I actually did some preliminary looking into the issue. Before the iPhone 2.0 operating system, when people were hacking open their iPhones to be able to run software on them, there were some tools that allowed you to run the Tcl/tk scripting languages on the iPhone.
There are some great open source tools for manipulating ABC files written in Tcl (http://ifdo.pugmarks.com/~seymour/runabc/top.html), and with some work, an ABC player could be written by combining those tools with a MIDI player application on the iPhone.
However, when Apple released their official SDK (software development kit) for writing iPhone/iPod Touch software, they included some clauses in their license agreement that preclude the use of such scripting languages. (Specifically clause 3.3.2, which states "An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs...")
So that killed any hope I had for a quick and dirty solution using the open source libraries. Sigh.
And I don't have time to work through the muck to try to write one from scratch.
It's certainly possible, though. And I would love to see someone write one!
ABC Tune player for iPhone/iPod Touch
ABC Tune player for iPhone/iPod Touch
Does anyone know of such an application?
I'm not a programmer, so I can't write one, and I've not seen one anywhere that I've looked. I'd love to have one. I'm on the road a lot, and hearing a melody line (and being able to slow it down so I can follow) is a great way to practice my whistle playing (gotta get something going that isn't bodhran or bones). A laptop computer is not an option, but my iPod is always with me.
# Posted on September 29th 2008 by KonaHuaNui
Re: ABC Tune player for iPhone/iPod Touch
I actually did some preliminary looking into the issue. Before the iPhone 2.0 operating system, when people were hacking open their iPhones to be able to run software on them, there were some tools that allowed you to run the Tcl/tk scripting languages on the iPhone.
There are some great open source tools for manipulating ABC files written in Tcl (http://ifdo.pugmarks.com/~seymour/runabc/top.html), and with some work, an ABC player could be written by combining those tools with a MIDI player application on the iPhone.
However, when Apple released their official SDK (software development kit) for writing iPhone/iPod Touch software, they included some clauses in their license agreement that preclude the use of such scripting languages. (Specifically clause 3.3.2, which states "An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs...")
So that killed any hope I had for a quick and dirty solution using the open source libraries. Sigh.
And I don't have time to work through the muck to try to write one from scratch.
It's certainly possible, though. And I would love to see someone write one!
# Posted on September 29th 2008 by Reverend
Re: ABC Tune player for iPhone/iPod Touch
Buy a windows smartphone then you can run TunePal!
http://www.bryanduggan.com/TunePal.html
# Posted on September 30th 2008 by skooter500
Re: ABC Tune player for iPhone/iPod Touch
Or better yet, buy TunePal for the iphone. I tried it out at my local session and we are all very impressed.
Excellent job skooter500!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tunepal/id356935033?mt=8
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by mjg