1.2. Requeriments

Please read this note if you have a Windows-based system, (Section 1.2.1)

This program has been written in Python programming language and uses the ABC music notation system as intermediate format. Thus, the system requirements are:

• Python, version 2.1 or higher. In almost all Linux or *BSD distributions you will find Python allready installed or available as package. There is versions for other operating systems such as Windows, BeOS, MacOS and more.

  You can visit the Python's official page ( http://www.python.org) and download a proper version for your operating system.

  You can check if Python is installed by typing in your command line: python

  An output similar to this will display:

  Python 2.1.3 (#1, Sep  7 2002, 15:29:56) 
  [GCC 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease)] on linux2
  Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
  >>>

  Type Ctl+D to exit. On Windows, Ctl+Z.

• If you want to use the graphic user interface, your Python instalation should have a module called Tkinter. Again, this module is standard in virtually all FreeBSD, MacOS and Linux distributions. Unfortunately, this module is not available for BeOS. BeOS users should use the command line version.

  You can check if Tkinter is properly installed typing this in your command line:

  Python 2.1.3 (#1, Sep  7 2002, 15:29:56) 
  [GCC 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease)] on linux2
  Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
  >>> from Tkinter import *
  >>> root = Tk()
  >>>

  If you don't see any error message and a small window like this is raised on your desktop, it means the installation has been successful:

  

  Otherwise, if you see an error like this:

  >>> import Tkinter
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "<stdin">, line 1, in ?
  ImportError: No module named Tkinter
  >>>

  you'll have to check your installation. Remember that Tkinter is a module available for Linux, FreeBSD, MacOS and Windows.

• ABC2MIDI. abc2midi is a small program which converts songs from ABC music notation format to standard MIDI files. Pymprovisator works in background with ABC format and needs this program in order to obtain a MIDI file.

  This program is not as widespread as others, but some Linux distributions includes it (as Debian). If you haven't this program, you can dowload a suitable version for your operating system at abcMIDI's web page ( http://abc.sourceforge.net/abcMIDI/). We have included some precompiled versions here, in the pymprovisator/exes directory. You can use the most suitable version for your OS.

• A MIDI player. On Windows boxes, Windows Media Player is a good choice. On other systems, you can use playmidi, timidity, kmid or another program.