Gnometab
--------

Gnometab aims to be a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tablature editor. 
I created Gnometab because, as a guitar teacher, I grew weary of writing out 
tablature -- it was barely legible, and I always seemed to be handing out the
originals, which inevitably were never returned to me.  Gnometab allows me to
generate legible tablature according to my own conventions and preferences,
and to preserve the originals in an electronic, editable format.

Gnometab's features include copying and pasting of tablature passages, a chord
library (which the user must fill with chords), professional-looking rhythm
notation (not perfect yet), the ability to create a variety of tablature symbols
specific to the guitar -- bends, slurs (hammer-ons, pull-offs, etc.), etc. -- 
and, of course, clean-looking printed output, given any postscript-compatible 
printer.  Gnometab does not attempt to be "smart", i.e., it does not know how
many beats are in a measure, nor does it know an E chord from an Am chord. 
Instead, the emphasis has been on the appearance of the output.

NOTE: Gnometab was designed by me, for me.  Consequently, it reflects the kind
of guitar player that I am.  It has a heavy emphasis on fingerstyle guitar, and
includes special tools for entering fingerstyle tablature according to classical
notation.  Note also that chords can be printed directly on the staff rather 
than over it.  This may be helpful for teaching -- the student's progress 
across the staff is interrupted by the chord, making overlooked chord changes 
much less frequent.  Gnometab lacks some features peculiar to "rock" guitar, 
most especially a method for creating complex bends or for notating wild 
whammy-bar pyrotechnics....  Please feel free to add these features and send me
a patch!

Installation
------------
Gnometab requires GNOME.  I suggest that you install the latest GNOME packages
from Ximian (ximian.com).  In addition to the core gnome desktop (and "devel"
packages, if you use RPMs), you will need libxml, gnome-print, and gdk-pixbuf.
These are a standard part of most GNOME installations.  Gnometab should build 
and run on any UNIX system on which GNOME builds and runs.  However, it was
developed solely on x86 Linux.  I appreciate reports of attempts to build and
run Gnometab on other platforms.  Installation is the usual:

./configure --prefix=/path/to/gnome/installation
make
make install

Note that on systems like RedHat Linux, it is necessary to include the 

--sysconfdir=/etc 

option to configure to get the gconf schema files installed in the correct
place.

Usage
-----

Choose a tool from the tool bar, and click on the staff where you want that
object to be created.  Some objects can be grabbed and moved on the staff;
grab these objects with the left mouse button.  Right-clicking an object
selects it and provides a menu for cutting, copying, pasting, and deleting.
To select an entire passage of tablature, press down the left mouse button over
the blank spot between the staffs, and drag the rectangle which appears until it
encompasses the passage in question.  When you release the mouse button, the
items inside the rectangle are selected, and the popup menu appears.  

To use the chord library, you must make some chords.  Use the chord
builder on the toolbar (second tool from the right).  The chord builder should
work the same way as the regular tablature, but it doesn't.  Only two tools are
available (text and bars), and right-clicking on chord builder objects does 
nothing (see the file TODO).  To delete a mistake, click the object with the 
middle mouse button.  Bars in the chord builder can be grabbed (left mouse 
button) and moved.  To save a chord in the chord library, click the "Save"
button in the builder before you click "Create".  This adds the new chord to
your chord library.  To select a chord from the library, choose the chord 
library tool on the toolbar (far right).  Click on the staff where you wish to
create the chord.  The chord library pops up.  Select the desired chord (left
click goes directly to the builder, right click gives you some options) and it
is loaded into the chord builder.

The rest might be self-explanatory.

Licensing
---------

Gnometab is free software.  You can pretty much do whatever you want with it, 
except sell it.  But I deny all responsibility.  See the file COPYING for 
details.

Contacts
--------

I can be reached at wguelker@solutionm.com.  Please send patches with cool new
features to this address.  Complaints should be addressed to /dev/null, though 
I am interested in feedback and suggestions.  If you have something you want to
put on the wishlist to see if I'll implement it, go ahead and ask.  But be sure 
to check out the TODO file -- that's my wishlist, and your wishes go at the end.  
