Are there any programs out there that imitate the music staff?

[KentaRawr!]

Well, here's my issue. I keep making up songs I'd like to write down, but I don't always have staff paper on hand! So, I was wondering if you EoFFers happen to know of a program that essentially acts as a musical staff. I remember having something along those lines on some old computer of ours where you could actually close the desktop, but that PC is long gone. :(

Thanks in advance! :p

[Slothy]

Finale is one, and Sibelius is another. Both are pretty pricey for the full versions, but they do have less full featured options if money is an issue. Various DAW's like Logic, Sonar, ProTools, etc. have their own implementations to different extents. I'm not sure of any free alternatives though. I'm pretty sure I've heard of a few over the years, but I don't recall any that were well liked.

[rubah]

I used to use Noteworthy Composer to jot down midis. /shrug

[o_O]

The first one I ever used was Noteworthy Composer, but as Allie said, it's for midis and you won't get a very nice sound out of it. Sibelius is what I'd use if I absolutely had to have a musical staff to write on, but if it's just the music composition I'm concerned with, I'd choose Cubase and FL Studio. FL is one of the easier to use DAWs (not that I'm saying it's easy to use though :p), and has good VST support, while Cubase is a bit more advanced but more powerful.

Then there's Guitar Pro, which is awesome if you like to tab stuff.

[Meat Puppet]

I had an awesome one for Atari ST and I can remember the name for that shiny coin in your hand