#use wml::tmpl::main title="FreeDots -- MusicXML <en: to Braille Music translation><de: in Braille Musiknotation konvertieren>" PAGE=programming SUBPAGE=freedots

<h2><en: What is><de: Was ist> FreeDots?</h2>
<p>FreeDots <en: is a Free Software project to enable blind users to
translate musical notation into Braille music><de: ist freie Software
um es blinden MusikerInnen zu erm&ouml;glichen selbst Musiknoten
in Braille Musiknotation zu &uuml;bertragen>.</p>
<p><en: Currently, the only input file format supported is
<a href="http://www.musicxml.org/xml/">MusicXML</a>,
a widely used standard for distributing musical notation digitally.>
<de: Derzeit wird <a href="http://www.musicxml.org/xml/">MusicXML</a> als
einziges Dateiformat unterst&uuml;tzt, ein
weit verbreitetes Dateiformat zum digitalen Austausch von Musiknotation>
MusicXML <en: can be read and written by many different types of musical
notation software, like <abbr title="Optical Music Recognition">OMR</abbr>
programs, music notation editing software and conversion tools to and from
other formats.><de: kann von verschiedensten Softwareprodukten
rund um das Thema Musiknotation (wie z.B. Optische Musikerkennungssoftware,
Musiknotations Bearbeitungssoftware u. dgl.) gelesen und geschireben werden.>
<en: A detailed list of software supporting MusicXML can be
found>
<de: Eine detailierte Liste aller Software produkte die MusicXML
unterst&uuml;tzen finden sie>
<a href="http://www.musicxml.org/xml/software.html#Now"><en: here><de: hier></a>.
</p>

<h2><en: Requirements><de: Was wird ben&ouml;tigt?></h2>
<ul>
<li>Python:
    <ul>
     <li>pygame</li>
     <li>setuptools</li>
    </ul>
</li>
</ul>

<h2>GUI</h2>
<p>
<en: FreeDots does also feature a GUI fronteend to view (and in the future also
edit) braille music.>
<de: FreeDots beinhaltet auch ein graphisches Benutzerinterface welches
zum betrachten (und inder Zukunft auch zum editieren)
von braille musiknotation verwendet werden kann.></p>
<p><a name="screenshot" href="$(ROOT)/images/freedots_screenshot.png"><img src="$(ROOT)/images/freedots_screenshot_small.png" alt="<en: Screenshot of FreeDots on a GNOME desktop with Orca in the background>"></a></p>

<h2>Download</h2>
<p>
FreeDots can be downloaded from its
<a href="http://code.google.com/p/freedots/downloads/list">Googlecode project
download page</a>.</p>
<p>FreeDots is also hosted on the <a href="http://pypi.python.org/">PyPI Package index</a>.
Please refer to the
<a href="http://pypi.python.org/pypi/freedots">FreeDots project page
at PyPI</a> for more details.</p>

<h2>Installation</h2>
<h3>On Microsoft Windows</h3>
<p>To be able to run FreeDots you need Python and a few python libraries.
Simply install all the programs linked below before proceding.</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.5.2/python-2.5.2.msi">python-2.5.2.msi</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pypi.python.org/packages/2.5/s/setuptools/setuptools-0.6c8.win32-py2.5.exe">setuptools-0.6c8.win32-py2.5.exe</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pygame.org/ftp/pygame-1.8.0.win32-py2.5.msi">pygame-1.8.0.win32-py2.5.msi</a></li>
</ol>
<p>Now just extract the freedots tarball somewhere,
change to that directory and run setup.py with your python interpreter.</p>
<p>For example: "\python25\python.exe setup.py install".</p>

<h2>Known Problems</h2>
<p>Since FreeDots is a very young project, there is
still a lot to do.  This is a list of things that are known
to not work at the moment.</p>
<ul>
<li>The editing GUI does not work on Windows in an accessible way since
GTK is not accessible on Windows yet.  gui.py probably needs a rewrite
in wxPython to be more cross-platform compatible.</li>
<li>MIDI files are only played interactively, there is no option
to save a MIDI file from a MusicXML file yet (simple to do,
just no demand so far).</li>
<li>Many braille music notation features are not yet implemented.
Help from knowledgeable people is highly appreciated.
This is your chance to do something valuable for the blind community.</li>
<li>The manual (intended as a brief general introduction to braille music
and as a user manual for Freedots) is missing a lot of content.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Feedback</h2>
<p>FreeDots development is mostly based on enthusiasm.  FreeDots
will continue to stay free of charge for everyone.  However,
enthusiam is also sparked by something.  If we know
that we have users that use and like FreeDots, we are more likely
to improve it even more! Additionally, FreeDots is Free Software,
you are invited to contribute code or documentation to make it an
even more useful project than it already is.
</p>