Odp: [sdiy] MIDI spec

[Neil Johnson]

On Sat, 30 Nov 2002, charlie lamm wrote:
> Not to get off on a rant, but midi.org is as far from a "dot org" as I
> have seen.  If it's really non-profit,

But that doesn't mean they have to run at a loss either...

> then I suspect someone is eating too many midi.org expensive account
> dinners w/ the guys from Roland and Korg.

More likely covering the travelling costs of the various committee members
who give up their free time to help steer this important technology away
from vested interests.  I know everything is dirt cheap in the US compared
to over here in Europe, but I'm sure that airline tickets still cost
*something*.

> Compare midi.org to a real "open standard" site like php.net..

Hmmmm...."open standard" like "open head".... And I wouldn't really use
the word "standard" with reference to PHP either.

Not really a valid comparison though:

- MMA consists of various committees that interface with other committees
(AES, ISO/IEC, etc) to make sure that MIDI is supported as widely as
possible by as many manufacturers as possible, and to stop them
specialising MIDI in the way that Microsoft does to standards (otherwise
there'd be "Roland MIDI", "Korg MIDI", "Yamaha MIDI", etc...oh joy)

- PHP is a hack put together by a bunch of programmers doing it because
they can.  They don't have to concern themselves with international
standards bodies, or in fact anyone who builds hardware.  Keeping up with
the various versions of PHP that appear is a fun task in itself (as I know
from experience... *sigh*)

> ..hmmm, quite a difference in the amount of available documentation on
> line, eh?

Indeed--PHP documentation is free to get as many people using it as
possible, where many of the users of PHP are bedroom-hackers who winge at
paying for anything unless it looks and tastes like a pizza.

MIDI is a standard primarily for industry, and to be honest $50 for a
weighty tome that is the MIDI Standard is pretty good value IMHO.  Even
the $200 a year for a Manufacturers ID is peanuts to company selling MIDI
gear.

> As I see it, Midi.org's site is a joke.  The official spec doc apparently
> has not been updated since 1996,

So, *swoon*, you're saying the MIDI standard has been stable for about 6
years!  Great, if only all standards were that stable.... at least the
manufacturers don't have to update drivers and wotnot every six months or
so.

> and a "new one" is due in 2002--they'd better skip a few dinners out and
> get cracking!  For $50 I don't want to roll the dice on a document that
> is getting revised (real soon now??)

Q: do you _really_ need a copy of the standard?  There's already plenty of
info on the web, or books with enough info about MIDI to get you by.  I
recommend "MIDI Systems and Control" by Francis Rumsey (its stocked on
Amazon.com---link too long to quote).  Oops, sorry, that costs $47.99, so
_way_ too expensive again ;-)

> Everything--membership, getting a sysex ID, the documentation for the spec
> itself--costs a surprising amount of money.

I think its quite reasonable given that what you're buying is a set of
pages hand-copied and bound.  Ask Bernie Hutchins how much he wants for
copies of Electronotes.  All the rest covers committee members travel, the
running costs of the website, admin, etc.

And $50 for a specification is actually pretty damned good value!  Just
ask the IEEE for a copy of a standard and see how much they charge!!  A
few quick examples:

IEEE-1364-2001 Verilog Hardware Descrption Language    $115.00
IEEE-802.11    Wireless Standards Package              $432.00

> They should call it midi.com.  Maybe that domain name was already taken?

Maybe not at the time, but then it would not have been appropriate, given
that they are a non-profit technical standards organisation.

So, "www.charlielamm.com" ... you're a commercial entity then?

I'm not really up for an argument, but it seems to me that too many people
see free stuff on the net, then complain when everything else is _not_
free.  Has no-one learned from the dot.bombs of recent times?  And
whatever happened to the saying "you get what you pay for"..?  It seems
these days that a lot of the "free" stuff on the net has zero worth.

How much do you value your time?  Remember: you have, on average, about
600,000 hours in your lifetime, and I'm guessing that about a third have
already been used up.  You don't get any back, there's no rebate system.
So, again, how much do you value your time?  Lets say $25 an hour.  You
have a choice: spend a couple of hours downloading, printing and binding
around 270 pages of information, or send $50 to the MMA and spend the
remaining one hour, 55 minutes doing something else.  Your choice.

Neil
(about to spend a very pleasant couple of hours with his synths :-)

--
Neil Johnson :: Computer Laboratory :: University of Cambridge ::
http://www.njohnson.co.uk          http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~nej22
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