MMLlib - Modern library for handling Music Macro Language

About

MMLlib is a pure Python implementation of functionality related to the Music Macro Language as implemented by Microsoft® GW-BASIC® and compatibles, which is its most common form, also implemented by the PC speaker driver in Linux and BSD, with a number of extensions and changes:

• | denotes a bar line, ignored by the Linux/BSD driver
• support for multiple (parallel) instrument tracks
• a per-file header with work metadata (optional)
• lines starting with a # are comments
• the alias ~ is not supported

The library currently contains functions to:

• parse an (extended) MML file into metadata and individual tracks
• a duration estimate and the number of tracks are added to the metadata
• return a list of tuples (frequency, duration) to play (in a threaded interpreter, such as Floppi-Music)
• bar lines are indicated separately as integer 1
• return an event-oriented list of measures / bars across all tracks; each measure has a duration and a list of time-fixed tone on/off events; facilitates playing in non-threaded interpreters and, possibly, MIDI export
• export (extended) MML to MusicXML
• which can be imported by e.g. MuseScore to…
  • double-check the MML score for mistakes in a visual representation
  • play, arrange, etc. the music
  • beautify the score to print it as sheet music
  • export into other formats or share on their website
• export (currently only the first track of) MML to an NXC program
• check tracks for synchronisation error
• missing tracks, i.e. with 0 bars
• missing bars (can only be detected at the end, of course)
• missing notes within a bar, relative to other tracks

Examples

Some example extended MML files are contained within the examples/ directory, in lieu of better documentation for the extended format, in addition to the MML format documentation.

Projects using MMLlib