Table of Contents
*****************


GNU Solfege
  You need this to run Solfege
  Versioning
  Internationalisation
  Sound issues
    Missing `/dev/music'
  If it just won't work
    Unset LC_NUMERIC
    It still won't work!
  History
  No CVS
  Copyright notice


GNU Solfege
***********

Solfege is an eartraining program for X Window System written in
python, using the GTK+ and GNOME libraries. With the port of gtk+ and
PyGTK to MS Windows, the program can even run on that OS.

   Check out the latest news and precompiled binaries at
`http://www.solfege.org'. Get the source code for the stable releases
at `ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/solfege' and bleeding edge at
`ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/solfege'.

   Eartraining is a big subject with many connections to music theory
and performance of music, so I won't even try to make "a complete
computerbased eartraining course". But I hope someone find this
software useful.

   As of 18 June 2000, Solfege is an official part of the GNU project.
Visit `http://www.gnu.org' for more info.

You need this to run Solfege
============================

   * Python >= 1.5.2

   * Gtk+ 1.2, preferable >= 1.2.8

   * Gnome >= 1.0.50

   * PyGNOME >= 1.0.50 - Python bindings for GNOME

   * Midi working on /dev/music or /dev/sequencer. Or at least possible
     to play midi files on some external program.

   Check the `INSTALL' file for build time requirements.

Versioning
==========

   Solfege uses a versioning scheme similar to the Linux kernel.  In a
version "x.y.z", an even (0, 2, 4, 6, 8) second number 'y' denotes a
stable version. So releases called 1.0, 1.2.2, 2.0.0 and similar should
work as documented, while a release versioned 1.1.x is a test release
that is expected to cause some troubles (that should be reported to
solfege-devel@lists.sourceforge.net)

Internationalisation
====================

   For translated messages:
       export LC_MESSAGES=de_DE

   At the moment only incomplete norwegian, german, french and italian
translations exist.

Sound issues
============

   You configure how Solfege should play sounds from the preferences
window available from the File menu. Earlier versions of Solfege
sometimes required you to configure sound using command line options at
startup to avoid a crash, but that should not be necessary any more.
(Those options are documented as obsolete on the man page and will be
removed in the next development series.)

Missing `/dev/music'
--------------------

   If you have a recent linux kernel (at least late 2.2.x and newer,
someone please confirm when /dev/music was added...) but `/dev/music'
is missing, you can probably create the device file yourself with
MAKEDEV or `mknod /dev/music u 14 8' as root.

If it just won't work
=====================

   One useful tips if you get strange errors is to delete the file
$HOME/.gnome/solfege1.0 ($HOME/solfegerc1.0 if you don't run GNOME) You
can also try to delete the $HOME/.solfege1.0 directory that contains
the statistics. (You might want to backup the files if they are not
what is causing the your problems!)

Unset LC_NUMERIC
----------------

   If you get an errormessage that ends something like this:

         ValueError: computed value for NV_MAGICCONST deviates too much (computed 2,82843, expected 1)

   you need to change the value of the environment variable LC_NUMERIC.
(This is a bug that is fixed in the latest PyGNOME bindings.)  You can
run solfege like this:

         LC_NUMERIC=C solfege

   or set the variable in you ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc file:

       export LC_NUMERIC=C

   If your shell is something else than bash, you probably know how to
do this.

It still won't work!
--------------------

   See the INSTALL file if you have problems building and installing
Solfege, and check the man page or run the program with the '--help'
command line option for a list of command line options.

   The users guide is located in the online-docs/ directory from the
unpacked source, and also available from inside the program from the
'Help' menu.

   Report your problems to <solfege-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>

History
=======

   The first versions of Solfege was written in the first quarter of
1999 when I studied my 4th and last year at Malm Academy of Music.  I
was writing a "special subject" (what is the english term??) about
eartraining and used GNU Lilypond and LaTeX to typeset the paper.

   I accidentally browsed the "help needed" page at the GNU web site
when I saw they needed someone to write an eartraining program for music
students.

   In the beginning I was experimenting with wxWindows, a cross
platform C++ GUI toolkit, but luckily, at some point I found the python
bindings for gtk+ and have never looked back.

No CVS
======

   Don't ask me to put Solfege under CVS, because I won't use my private
payed phone line to keep my working version of Solfege in sync with a
CVS server. If I ever get net access at home where I pay only a monthly
fee, this will of course change. If you want to do some development,
please email me to coordinate the work.

Copyright notice
================

   Copyright (C) 2000-2001  Tom Cato Amundsen

   This if free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2.

   This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
for more details.

   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
with your Debian GNU/Linux system, in /usr/doc/copyright/GPL, with the
solfege source package as the file COPYING and available in the online
help system..  If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

   Tom Cato Amundsen <tca@gnu.org>

