It's been a year since the last time displaying chord diagrams for ChordPro files was discussed, and the answer then was "it's on the to-do list". Are there any updates? Is it even scheduled yet?
When MobileSheets Pro was first teased, ChordPro support was the killer feature for me over MobileSheets, but I still have barely any in my song database because the files are useless to me without the ability to display the chord fingerings (even if _I_ know all the chords, I teach a lot of novice players who don't). So I still have to use other programs to edit my files, render them to PDF, and then import them, or more frequently, just use a different tablet app for ChordPro songs and only use MSP for PDF files.
I really do love the program, but the lack of this one feature kills a lot of its utility for me.
Over the last year, work has been split between finishing and stabilizing the Windows 10 version, new MIDI features, the "Connect Devices" feature to let a master control slave devices, smart buttons, support for removable SD cards on devices running Android 5.0+ and periodic updates with bug fixes and small enhancements. Chord diagrams were never demanded by enough users to make them a higher priority than the other requests. Having said that, I have a couple big things that I'm working through including the annotations rework and features for synchronizing libraries between devices. Once those are finished, I can focus on other requests such as chord diagrams for chord pro files. The more users that request this capability, the higher it will be placed on the priority list compared to other features. I just got done migrating my bug tracking system, and I have almost 200 requests to work through. Figuring out what features are the most critical is not an easy thing, which is why I have to rely on what is asked for the most. If other people could really use chord diagrams, I hope they speak up in this thread so I can get an idea of how important they are to most users.
10-14-2017, 11:09 AM (This post was last modified: 10-14-2017, 11:16 AM by Zubersoft.)
I'm currently using a shared server through HostGator, and they have everything locked down. Bugzilla is certainly no longer an option. There are other open source bug tracking solutions I could try, but now that I'm set up with an offline solution, I'm not sure it's worth the considerable effort to recreate all the bugs again. MantisBT is one thing I might try. If I like it enough and it's compatible with the shared server, then I'll slowly port the issues over and make it public again.
10-14-2017, 04:07 PM (This post was last modified: 10-15-2017, 12:59 AM by Zubersoft.)
Turns out the shared server on HostGator is using a PHP version that was released in 2012. It's so old that I can't even run MantisBT. Unless I upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server, I won't be able to host a bug tracker publicly anymore.
It may be worth considering to open a (new) issue tracker at (e.g.) github. Even if the current issues can not be migrated it is good to have a functional and publicly accessible issue tracker.
I spent all yesterday migrating the server over to a VPS, and now I have complete control over everything running on the server (and it's much faster!). I set up MantisBT here for bug tracking: https://zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/issues/
Every page on the server is also now https, so things are more secure. Definitely worth the time and effort!
(10-16-2017, 02:09 AM)Steve B. Wrote: Even if I do know how to finger a chord, sometimes a different form is called for and I need a reminder.[...]
This makes me wonder if ChordPro could even handle different forms of the same chord?
The ChordPro specification provides this in the form of the {chord} directive. https://www.chordpro.org/chordpro/Directives-chord.html
You can have multiple {chord} directives for the same chord, with different strings/fingerings.
(10-16-2017, 02:09 AM)Steve B. Wrote: Even if I do know how to finger a chord, sometimes a different form is called for and I need a reminder.[...]
This makes me wonder if ChordPro could even handle different forms of the same chord?
The ChordPro specification provides this in the form of the {chord} directive. https://www.chordpro.org/chordpro/Directives-chord.html
You can have multiple {chord} directives for the same chord, with different strings/fingerings.
Thanks, Johan!
Perhaps I will soon need to re-think my aversion to ChordPro...
I presume a main advantage would be smaller file sizes as compared to .PDFs?
(10-18-2017, 09:59 AM)Steve B. Wrote: I presume a main advantage would be smaller file sizes as compared to .PDFs?
Not specifically. While a .cho is on average 30 times smaller than a PDF size does not matter much these days. For example, the Google Play Services app is 222MB, equivalent to some 6000 song PDFs.
More important is that the song is transposable at view time.
And tunable. Each person of a band can have her own private settings that control the display (e.g., no chords for singers, big chords small lyrics for harmonists, a capo for guitarists) while still using the same song source.
But, while MSPro does a great job with ChordPro files, it is not yet supporting all the features of ChordPro. However I'm confident MSPro will catch up given time.
Yes, I'm either going to work on it and include it with the annotations rework over the next couple months, or I'm going to finish it right after that. Either way, it's high on the priority list.
