COMMAND

assemble -- amalgamate two or more Humdrum files


SYNOPSIS

assemble inputfile1 inputfile2 [inputfile3 ...] [ > outputfile]


DESCRIPTION

The assemble command allows two or more structurally similar Humdrum files to be aligned together -- such as where a full score is assembled from files containing individual parts.

The assemble command is similar to the UNIX paste command. If file `A' contains:

1
2
3
and file `B' contains:
A
B
C
then the UNIX command:

paste A B

will produce the following output:

1A
2B
3C
The assemble command is a more sophisticated version of paste -- suitable for assembling several concurrent spines stored in different Humdrum files. The assemble command coordinates and synchronizes comments, interpretations, and data records from the input files. Duplicate global comments are avoided. Corresponding local comments are output where appropriate. Where one file contains local comments and a second file contains none, null local comments are inserted as appropriate. Similarly, null interpretations may also be added as necessary.

The assemble command expects that the input files will normally have the same number of data records. These data records are aligned side-by-side. If the input files do not contain the same number of data records, then the spines in the shorter file will be terminated with appropriate spine-path terminators.


OPTIONS

The assemble command provides only a help option:
-hdisplays a help screen summarizing the command syntax
Options are specified in the command line.


EXAMPLES

The operation of assemble can be illustrated by considering the following two input files. Both files contain the same number of data records (4).

file1:

!! A sample file.
**foo**foo**foo
!1!2!3
X.X
X..
**v*v
XX
.X
*-*-

file2:

!! A sample file.
!! An additional global comment.
**bar**bar
!4!5
..
XX
*v*v
! joined
X
.
*-
If the assemble command is invoked as:

assemble file1 file2

then the corresponding output is:

!! A sample file.
!! An additional global comment.
**foo**foo**foo**bar**bar
!1!2!3!4!5
X .X..
X..XX
* *v*v**
* **v*v
!!! joined
XXX
.X.
*-*-*-
Notice that both input files begin with the identical global comment; only one copy of this comment appears in the output. The second file contains an additional global comment that is also output. The subsequent local comments have been amalgamated on a single output line. The spine-path changes in both input files have been properly rendered by padding null interpretations in the appropriate spines. The last local comment in file2 has also been correctly re-positioned. Finally, each of the four data records have been aligned.


PORTABILITY

DOS 2.0 and up, with the MKS Toolkit. OS/2 with the MKS Toolkit. UNIX systems supporting the Korn shell or Bourne shell command interpreters, and revised awk (1985).


SEE ALSO

census (4), extract (4), humdrum (4), paste (UNIX), timebase (4)


LIMITS

The number of specified input files may be limited on DOS systems.