[sword-devel] Getting stuff done (Re: External links)

[Karl Kleinpaste]

"Troy A. Griffitts" <scribe at crosswire.org> writes:
> I understand why Karl uses ThML-- because gnomesword supports it.  

Troy, I'm sorry, but that's not correct, and that's not my point.

I use ThML because it provides what I need.  Now.  Fast.  My newest
module, TrainTwelve, looks fine in BibleCS, thanx.

Especially in its HTML-plus-goodies nature (scripRef, note, sync), ThML
offers format control.  Publishers really do want a say in how their
content is displayed.  My home-built ThML NET Bible module looks like
bible.org's original display; their own OSIS module fails to do so in
several ways.  Also, if the publisher wants purple text, does OSIS pass
<font color="#a0208c"> unmolested?  (I use this, really...sometimes in
combination with <div type="variant" class="[12]">, oddly enough.)

That's all.  It just works.

I'm not opposed to semantic markup.  I'm not bound and determined to
stand in OSIS' way.  Far from it.  On the other hand, neither am I
inclined to let go of existing capability in favor of an
acknowledged-as-incomplete implementation.

I just want to Get Stuff Done.  Telling me that something I do well
isn't somehow proper for the incomplete implementation is no way to
encourage me or anyone else to hurry up to adopt it.

> I would ask him and others to consider supporting other frontends
> better, and our general goal to move toward a 'semantically' marked up
> text rather than a display oriented markup because of all the obvious
> reasons-- linguistic research of the text, display abstraction and
> customization, common interchange format between orgs, etc.

I know the motivation for OSIS and I am perfectly OK with abstraction.
I also know that OSIS won't give me what I want today.  As observed by
Matthew and Greg, there is a self-contradictory drumbeat, "Don't use
sword://, nothing but GnomeSword supports it, use osisRef -- oh, by the
way, it doesn't work yet."

> None of this requires engine changes, but rather that we extend the 
> historical conceptual idea of a reference beyond bible:key.
> This is a frontend change.  Just as gnomesword decomposes a reference 
> from ThML sword://module/key, it should also decompose a reference from 
> OSIS module:key and accommodate the meta modules above accordingly

If the reference comes out in a suitable "passagestudy.jsp"-style
internal URL reference with content in "&value=", we can do whatever is
needed.  How does osisRef pop out in the engine's HTML result?  I've
never noticed.

Also, I know no reason why a module shouldn't have completely external-
to-the-app http:// references, not just internal-to-other-docs refs.
Can OSIS provide that kind of linkage?  ThML can, and does, and I use
it.  (Recent gains with gnome_open_url() have me experimenting with some
new, interesting, useful capability.)

--karl