The MuseScore XML files do not contain any link to a DTD, XSD or other XML DOCTYPE metadata, and thus, they are not self-documenting.
By comparison, the MusicXML format is open, because the following documentation is available: http://www.musicxml.com/for-developers/ Those zip files contain a complete and full specification of how to read & write MusicXML files, as I'm sure the MuseScore developers are familiar with.
I wouldn't consider the MuseScore 1.3 or 2.0 format "open" until there is available full specification of the XML file formats, and the ZIP-based container they're usually wrapped in.
Even the MuseScore core developers admit there is no save file documentation and warn against attempting to parse MuseScore's save file format: http://musescore.org/node/13837
This is not "open", and I think it's wrong to sell these engravings as "open scores" in this context.
The MuseScore XML files do not contain any link to a DTD, XSD or other XML DOCTYPE metadata, and thus, they are not self-documenting.
By comparison, the MusicXML format is open, because the following documentation is available: http://www.musicxml.com/for-developers/ Those zip files contain a complete and full specification of how to read & write MusicXML files, as I'm sure the MuseScore developers are familiar with.
I wouldn't consider the MuseScore 1.3 or 2.0 format "open" until there is available full specification of the XML file formats, and the ZIP-based container they're usually wrapped in.
Even the MuseScore core developers admit there is no save file documentation and warn against attempting to parse MuseScore's save file format: http://musescore.org/node/13837
This is not "open", and I think it's wrong to sell these engravings as "open scores" in this context.