Before explaining the new plugin framework, let's define what problems we faced with the plugin subsystem in MuseScore 1.2.

One problem is the binding to the qt library. The code to enable this is very huge and consists of > 1100 files with > 297000 lines of code. This is not maintainable for the MuseScore team. It seems that qt does not maintain this anymore and it will not be available for the next major Qt version.

Another problem is that the MuseScore class hierarchy cannot be exposed easily to the current JavaScript engine. Every MuseScore class must be wrapped by a special proxy class. This also is a big maintenance issue and makes it difficult and expensive to make more elements of MuseScore available for scripting.Read more

With 3,000,000 people having downloaded MuseScore, I imagine there must be quite a few of us doing interesting things with it. From newcomers to music software writing their first compositions, to hobbyists looking for a better, easier, and/or cheaper way to notate their music, to professional musicians, educators, and composers creating works for performance and even publication - I expect MuseScore is being used for all these things and more.

So how about it? Let's hear your stories!

Our last news update is already from a couple of months ago with the maintenance release of MuseScore 1.1. It has been a successful release with more than half a million downloads and counting. Something we are very proud of. Since then some of our attention has shifted to the next major release, MuseScore 2.0, to make it the best release ever. To join this effort, check out the MuseScore nightly builds and report bugs in the issue tracker. Another part of our attention went to something else, something mobile.Read more

MuseScore users might be interested in my new ebook – MuseScore: The Essential Beginner's Guide. It's available at a special launch price for 4 days.

The book contains step-by-step tutorials showing you how to publish, play and share your music. For more information, visit http://www.musescoretips.com/musescore-the-essential-beginners-guide/

25% of each sale will be donated back to the MuseScore project.

All the best
Katie