[porkloin]

> If I want to transport music notation between software programs, I have MIDI for that, which does a good job of capturing all elements of a performance (keys, timing, velocity, pedals, aftertouch, etc.) These types of notation formats almost always fail to achieve MIDIs precision across all the aspects of a performance.

Well put. A lot of these feel like the wrong tool for the job, and I have a really hard time understanding why you'd want to track pitch data in a format like this when, as you say, DAWs exist and midi tracks can be moved around between them.

The only time these types of projects make more sense to me is when they present opportunities for discoverability or non-linear sequencing that can result in new or interesting ideas. For example, the Orca Sequencer used in this demo vide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe8wE0sx31Q) is an example of a tool that folks use as a synth-agnostic sequencer that takes advantage of a non-linear format to create music that you might not in a DAW/piano roll. Or at the very least, makes you take a wholly different route to get there.

Projects like Alda, however, make less sense to me since they are squarely pointed at linear-workflow music tracking, which is such a saturated space that it's hard to come in with a new format that doesn't just feel like a more painful way to do what a DAW can let you do.

[randomswede]

For me the (more hypothetical than real) appeal is that if I actually get around to play with Markov chains and music, having an output target that is text-based (and well-documented) is a WHOLE lot easier than having an output that is one of "I programatically drive a mouse to click around" or "an undocumented binary format".

But, then, I also do close to 100% of my 3D-modelling in what looks like code.

For me, the question isn't "why do people like text-based description languages" it is "why do people dislike them".

And I guess the answer is "it doesn't matter, we are all different, and at the end of the day, what works for me may not work for you, and vice versa".

Heck, I even use both vi and emacs.