MusiXTeX for Debian
-------------------

Dear music lover:

  Welcome to the wonderful world of music typesetting!
  This is the Debian package of MusiXTeX (Daniel Taupin's version).
  Hope you enjoy producing beautiful music scores with MusiXTeX
  and related packages!


GETTING STARTED
===============

To read the MusiXTeX manual:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  * Either run "texdoc musixdoc" or
    xdg-open /usr/share/texmf/doc/generic/musixtex/musixdoc.pdf

  * You might like to generate your own musixdoc.dvi and musixdoc.ps
    to suit your paper size and printer resolution.  This can be
    accomplished by compiling the musixdoc sources from the Debian
    source package and Make_musixdoc. musixdoc.{tex,sty} are found
    in the tex/ directory in the source package and Make_musixdoc is
    in the debian/ directory.
      
    To print on US Letter (8.5" x 11") paper,
    change the first few lines of musixdoc.sty from:

        \textheight= 50\baselineskip
        \textwidth= 210mm \advance\textwidth-2in %

    to the following (or something similar):

        \textheight= 46\baselineskip
        \textwidth= 8.5in \advance\textwidth-2in %

    Then simply run musixtex musixdoc to generate the PDF file.

Create a format (fmt) file to speed up compilations:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As root, un-comment the last line from /etc/texmf/fmt.d/40musixtex.cnf:
# musixtex      pdftex  language.dat    musixtex.ini

then run:

  update-fmtutil

finally run:

  fmtutil --byfmt musixtex


To compile your MusiXTeX source music score file (*.tex):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  MusiXTeX is a three-pass system.  It uses an external program called
  musixflx to calculate the spacing of the notes.  To compile your
  MusiXTeX jobname.tex file, you may use:

     musixtex jobname.tex  

(musixtex is a script to run TeX ==> musixflx ==> TeX ==> dvips ==> ps2pdf 
 on jobname.tex)

  Or, if you prefer to do it manually, try:

     tex jobname.tex 
     musixflx jobname 
     tex jobname.tex 
     dvips -o jobname.ps jobname.dvi 
     ps2pdf jobname.ps

For LaTeX MusiXTeX files, use musixtex -l, or the following:

     latex jobname.tex 
     musixflx jobname 
     latex jobname.tex
     etc.

There are many other options to vary the behaviour of musixtex.

MusiXTeX's Helpers and Other Music Typesetting Packages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  MusiXTeX is designed mainly for music typesetting, not for music notation.
  That is, it lets you control precisely how to typeset a passage, and would
  not make the decision for you.  Because of this power and versatility, it
  might seem tedious and complicated to input scores, especially for
  beginners.  Don't be scared, it's not difficult to work with MusiXTeX!
  Furthermore, there are some great packages and preprocessors with simple
  syntax that take care of the design decisions for you, great for all
  beginners and experts alike!  ^_^  Saves time too!

    ABC2MTeX -- An easy way of transcribing folk and traditional music
         PMX -- A Preprocessor for MusiXTeX
        M-Tx -- Music from Text, works with PMX and make it easy to add
	        lyrics to your music score
    musixlyr -- MusiXTeX addon to support lyrics within MusiXTeX scores

  All these packages are included in Debian with the according lowercase
  package names.

  There are also other great music typesetting packages such as SceX,
  OpusTeX (MusiXTeX's twin) and GNU LilyPond.  Check out:

	tex-music Mailing List <tex-music@tug.org>
	(music typesetting software discussion list)
	To subscribe, go to http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-music

	The Werner Icking Memorial Music Archive
	(Lots of music scores and music software!)
	http://icking-music-archive.org/

	GNU LilyPond (and links to the GNU Music Project)
	http://www.lilypond.org/

  Many of these great software are now available as Debian packages.
  If you like to help packaging other music software, please do so!  ^_^

Have fun and start making beautiful music scores!  ^_^

The MusiXTeX maintainers for Debian,
Previous: Anthony Fok <foka@debian.org>, Wed, 22 Apr 1998 03:51:44 -0600
Previous: Roland Stigge <stigge@antcom.de>, Fri, 08 Aug 2003 19:09:56 +0200
Current: Debian TeX Team <debian-tex-maint@lists.debian.org>, 
	Roland Stigge <stigge@antcom.de>, 
	Norbert Preining <preining@debian.org>

Contributions to this README by Bob Tennent.
