Change ringing software encompasses the several different types of software in use today in connection with change ringing

Change ringing

Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....

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Modern day change ringing software

The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers keeps a list of all "current change ringing software"
There are four general types of software used in connection with change ringing.

Composing tools

The most common use of software in change ringing is composition proving. This type of software is used to take the tedium out of proving change ringing

Change ringing

Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....

 compositions: that is, checking that no change within the composition is repeated. The software will perform the checks required to prove a composition in milliseconds, rather than the hours or days required for paper based proving methods. Often these programs can also analyse compositions to determine the musical rows that they contain.

In recent years, more advanced tools have emerged which can assist the human composer in other ways. These range from pure composition-generation programs such as BYROC and Elf, to more sophisticated programs such as SMC32, which can work alongside the human composer, for instance by linking together existing musical blocks which the composer has created.

The main examples of proving software are:
"Ringing Master"
"Excalibur"
"Beltower"

Some examples of composition generation tools:
"BYROC"
"Elf"

Simulator

Simulator software's original use was to allow the practicing of change ringing in the tower, but is perhaps used more in the home now, using a dumbbell or keyboard. There are different scenarios that can now be accommodated by the latest software. Sensors are used to give temporal information to the computer.

• Single or multiple learner silent practice with computer producing sound of the bell.
• Whole band silent practice with computer producing sound of all the bells.
• Practice on more bells than you have with the computer adding in the extra bells.
• Practice methods that are more advanced that your band is capable with the computer filling in all the bells.

The main examples of simulator software are:
"Ringing Master"
"Abel"
"Beltower"

Record keeping

Keeping records is very important to some change ringers. Records are often kept in the following areas:

• Grabs (towers visited)
• Peals.
• Quarter peals.

The main examples of record keeping software are:
"Ringing Master"
"WinRK"

Tower directory

An up to date directory of towers is often used to plan outings and, used in conjunction with the record keeping software to decide what towers still need to be grabbed.

The main examples of tower directory software are:
"Ringing Master"
"TowerBase"

History of change ringing software

The earliest known change ringing programs can be traced back to the 1950s. Some of this history is traced in this article on software firsts http://www.ringing.info/shaggy.html

See also

• Campanology
  Campanology
  Campanology is the study of bells. It encompasses the physical realities of bells — how they are cast, tuned and sounded — as well as the various methods devised to perform bell-ringing....
  
  
• A paper on the mathematics of change ringing
• Braid theory
  Braid theory
  In topology, a branch of mathematics, braid theory is an abstract geometric theory studying the everyday braid concept, and some generalizations. The idea is that braids can be organized into groups, in which the group operation is 'do the first braid on a set of strings, and then follow it with a...
  
  

External links

• "Ringing Master" bell ringing composition proving, simulator and record keeping software
• "Abel" simulator software
• "Excalibur" composition proving software
• "Beltower" bell ringing simulator, prover, composer, method/touch editors and printing software
• "Virtual Belfry" high-resolution photographic animation of change ringing bells, simulator, ropesight tutor
• "Visual Method Archive (VMA)" - simple, FREE, web-based tool to view blue lines for methods and experiment with generating your own
• "Elf" - online lead and half-lead spliced composing engine
• "Stedman Pricker" - assists the Stedman composer in pricking and proving compositions on all numbers