I was just wondering if there was a whistle tab page on here, and if not what are your views about starting one?
Well there’s this mighty ABC converter which can inter alia generate whistle tabs…
http://mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php (formerly @ folkinfo.org)
What would you have in mind as an objective? There’s sure no harm in having such a thread. You might want to add some more thoughts on how you might want it to work.
What is your definition of whistle tab? Is it any notation other than dots and flags on the bars? Or is it pictures of a whistle’s fingerings with black or white tone holes. If it is the later, I for one find that method doesn’t always convey the ornaments embedded in a tune but rather just the raw unaccented notes. I’m sure there are ways to convey that but I’ve not seen it done.
There are a huge number of tune repository resources on the Internet. If you are not familiar with those we can certainly run a list here to help out. Some sites do ABC notation and others do a variety of notation formats. Remember that tunes are not just for whistles. We have to play nice with the fiddles and banjos too. ABC has been used as a shorthand notation for folk music for many, many years. It certainly has for all my long life and I assume it was around long before that. The Internet has helped to standardize the use of ABCs. It’s easy to read and the format is mature enough now to convey all the necessary bits that make up a tune. And if it is fingerings that you need to get going it is a fairly simple matter to use a “whistle tab font” and then apply it to the ABC text to see the fingerings.
Otherwise it is nice idea to share good tunes and the notation for them. I am sure many here would enjoy that. Let’s see what others think.
Feadoggie
Tab use is really a crutch you should shed as soon as possible (within a few months really) rather than encourage. If you start learning which finger you lift for each note you’ll have it within a short time. Using tab will only slow that development I think.
But have a stab at it if you feel like it.
I fully agree. Though IMO tabs are good to get people playing who are scared of dots and think learning by ear is kind of black magic.
Oh, I thought those tadpole things were magical text for some spell or incantation 
I agree that whistle tab should be discouraged but I think there’s a place for providing PDFs or abc notation of tunes, more particularly those that don’t fit easily into traditional music sites like Session.org. Traditional jigs and reels are easy to find elsewhere but airs are not so easily covered by these other sites and would be very welcome, especially if forum members know to ornament them well in accordance with the style of a particular player. And then there’s those whistle tunes that fall outside of traditional music e.g. whistle tunes in movie soundtracks. It could be a good resource if it doesn’t attempt to duplicate what’s already available elsewhere. And, just a thought, maybe there could be a “wants” list where people ask more experienced players to transcribe particular pieces.
I think Feadoggie has pretty well covered the basic issues with this.
In the world of pop guitar and other stringy things, tab is used loosely to mean any kind of written notation. In any other world, including Whistle World, tab means tablature - a notation of the physical fingerings of the instrument. The OP should clarify which one he means.
Tablature makes sense for instruments that present more than one fingering to play the same notes. Not so much for whistle, where there’s a one-to-one correspondence. If you know how to finger each note, then any standard pitch notation (dots or ABC) is the exact equivalent of tablature.
From a pedagogical POV, your dear Moderators strongly discourage the use of whistle tablature, except as a very temporary measure. There are only 8 scale notes to learn (including C and C#), and learning the letter name of each note/fingering should be done very quickly, whether you intend to read music or not. After that, matching up the notes to your favorite notation is just a matter of some practice.
As for a notation thread, I guess we’d need a clearer explanation of the why. TheSession.org already does a fine job of providing a place to share written trad tunes with discussion and annotation, and I’m not sure we want to duplicate that in our free-form thread format, instead of simply supporting TheSession.org. And there are really no whistle-specific tunes (though there are whistle-friendly settings). But we’re open to suggestions. 
I certainly agree with MTG, but do think there might be a place for some kinds of music here. BUT, it should be carefully limited. You can find almost every kind of music on the web somewhere, and much of it can be played on whistle. Those who are gluttons for punishment can try playing through the “Nine-note tune book” on Jack Campin’s page. BTW, I have a copy of that that moves things up to base around D rather than around C making things more useful for whistlers I have Jack’s permission to circulate if you are interested.
My point is that if you look by genera you can find almost anything on the web in some notated format or another. So, if something were to be here what should it be? Perhaps a list of favorite tunes with links to already available ABC or PDF files? Or perhaps a collection of variations that have been transcribed for the playing of slow airs? Or maybe special pieces from obscure repertoires that can serve as a good introduction to that repertoire?? Whistle is common in much of the world and I suspect there is some grand stuff out there that could be collected in one place.
If there is some interest among our fearless leaders in such a thing I’d suggest something like what exists on the concertina site: Simply a forum for tunes where folks can post ABC or perhaps other forms of tunes they’ve found of particular interest. It need not be more than that if the forum directions suggest the “proper” contents of the header and post. With that info folks can search as they wish. And, it would take no additional software hacking and would certainly be useful.
My $1.95 worth (inflation you know) 
I’m with the crowd that says to learn to read notes. It’s REALLY not hard, and knowing this simple skill will open up literally thousands of tunes to you.
Confession-- I’ve been using TAB for clawhammer banjo. Banjo is played in several (many) different tunings, so as Guru pointed out reading notes in all those different tunings would be a bear. TAB is definitely useful in this case. For whistle? Meh…
My sentiments, exactly. I use tab for clawhammer banjo, because of the myriad tunings. It just makes sense. For flute, whistle, mandolin — all statically-tuned instruments — ear first and standard written notation as a support tool. Mostly the dots become a memory jogger, and I only need to read the first few notes to remember the tune.
As far as eschewing notation, I use this analogy: You should definitely learn to speak words using your ear and some trial-and-error practice first. Once you have that down, by all means, learn to read. It’s easy, and may help you go a lot further.