Configuration Files

When browsing through the wiki entries about ChordPro's file format and the command-line options, you continually find references to the option to use a configuration file for certain things. In fact, this kind of processing is far more powerful than the command-line parameters or the graphical interface. A detailed description of the extensive possibilities of the configuration file can also be found in the wiki [6].

Typical examples of the need for an external control file include printing fingering diagrams for instruments that are not directly supported, outputting alternative fingerings, and displaying chords that ChordPro does not know and that you therefore have to specify explicitly. Listing 4 shows you an example of a wiki fingering image, marginally adapted for our purposes, which defines two variants of the B flat major chord in the low and high registers in the configuration file.

// The default for "base" is 1.
// Use 0 for an empty string and
// -1 for a damped string.
"chords" : [
  {
    "name"  : "B(low)",
    "base"  : 1,
    "frets" : [ 1, 1, 3, 3, 3, 1 ],
    "fingers" : [ 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 ],
  },
  {
    "name"  : "B(high)",
    "base"  : 6,
    "frets" : [ 1, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1 ],
    "fingers" : [ 1, 3, 4, 2, 1, 1 ],
  },
],

Conclusions

ChordPro fully lives up to its reputation as the reference software for the ChordPro markup format – no matter whether you prefer the command-line version or the GUI. The program does a really good job of the things it sets out to do and can be a good option provided that the basic functions are all you need for the time being. In general, the terminal version of ChordPro is more powerful and practical than the GUI version. The editor in particular lacks functionally, so you might prefer your favorite editor.

However, the widely used editors based on Gtksourceview (like Gedit) or KatePart (Kate) do not have syntax highlighting for the ChordPro format. At least there is a plugin for Vim [7]. But even without syntax highlighting, it is worth learning the various command-line and configuration options. This is the only way to visualize unknown chords in the printed output.