[bt-devel] parallel display of Bibles

[Daniel Owens]

I have a feature request (I didn't see any feature requests in the bug 
tracker and wasn't sure where else to make this suggestion).

One of my favorite features of BibleTime (and there are several that for 
me make it rise above the rest) is the parallel display of Bible texts. 
I have been doing a lot of work in the Psalms lately using the OSMHB 
from the experimental repository and the ESV, which correspond roughly 
to the Leningrad and KJV versifications.

One idea I mentioned on sword-devel is the idea of having the option of 
synchronizing separate windows of Bible texts much like commentaries 
synchronize with Bible texts.

I can see two significant advantages to this. First, I would think (and 
I could be very wrong about this) this would make it possible for all 
the verses of a given chapter in each text to display at once (see below 
for a case of how this works now). Second it would allow each version to 
preserve paragraph and poetic breaks.

I realize this is a feature request, and I can't contribute code :(. But 
as someone who uses BibleTime regularly for academic research, I have 
run into challenges as a user in regard to versification, particularly 
the dropping of verses at the end of a chapter. Even if the verses are 
offset by one or two verses, that is something I can deal with, but when 
verses are dropped it's a challenge.

If you want to see this in action, place the ESV in parallel to the 
OSMHB or the WLC in the Leningrad versification (I think in the 
experimental repo) at Psalm 5. With the ESV as the first text (from the 
left), verse 13 of Psalm 5 is dropped from the OSMHB. If the OSMHB is 
the first text, then the first verse of Psalm 6 in the ESV appears next 
to verse 13 of Ps 5 in the OSMHB. I don't think this is a bug in 
BibleTime but in the sword engine, but I thought I would mention it.

Daniel