Re: DIrect import of Finale musx files.

Thank you very much for the generous offer.

I remember my youth, when I experimented with several music notation=20
programs, and I believe Finale was one of them. However, when I switched=
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to a new computer, I could no longer open my compositions. I was so=20
frustrated that I decided to write music only on paper.

Many years later, that experience was one of the reasons I switched from=
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paper to LilyPond: the confidence that I will still be able to read my=20
scores in 30 years, even without relying on a specific computer or=20
proprietary software.

My reply comes rather late because I was hoping that someone more=20
experienced than I am would have the time to take on this project.

Some people here know that I am currently working my way into the deeper=
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internals of LilyPond. My goal is to develop a parser that provides=20
syntax highlighting and builds a LilyPond AST in C++. I would like that=20
AST to follow LilyPond's internal structures as closely as possible.

In principle, this could provide a good interface for translating the=20
Finale DOM into a LilyPond AST and then generating a LilyPond source=20
file from it.

Finale -> DOM -> AST -> LilyPond

Perhaps the reverse direction could also be possible.

I think there are certainly people here with much greater expertise than=
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I have. However, if nobody has the time to work on it, I could imagine=20
taking it on once my parser and AST are finished.

Realistically, though, I do not expect to have time for this before July=
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2027.

Of course, if someone else has the capacity before then, I would be very=
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happy for them to tackle it instead.

If my idea makes sense, I suspect that the most challenging part will be=
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mapping the Finale DOM to the LilyPond AST.

Best regards,
Christian