[sword-devel] Module Display Names

[Jonathan Morgan]

On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 12:52 PM, Peter von Kaehne <refdoc at gmx.net> wrote:

>
> > I think putting abbreviation first always is nice because it is easier
> > to scan for (i.e. ESV is much more recognizable than English Standard
> > Version).  Putting the Abbreviation on the front makes it possible to
> > scan through a list for it, whereas if the description was first and the
> > abbreviation at the end it would be much more difficult.
>
> A lot of this comes back to some of the threads in the past on localised
> display of book names etc.
>
> If I use e.g. Xiphos in German it is a bit irritating that all kind of
> German Bibles are called GerThis or GerThat, particularly if there are
> valid (but possibly conflicting with those in other languages)
> abbreviations.
>
> Therefore I think we should really move away from using the internal
> identifier as a user visible tag.
>
> If we have unique internal identifiers we can have any number of
> clashing abbreviations in different languages - it simply will not
> matter - the English ESV will be something entirely different to the
> Romanian (I am making this one up) and a user having both installed will
> cope because s/he will usually know the context.
>

I agree with Peter and Ben.

I think having an abbreviation is useful for display for a few reasons:
1. UI controls where space is limited (e.g. in a table with many other
entries, or in a dropdown).

2. For ease of scanning, as Ben said.

3. Because the abbreviation might actually be known better than the correct,
full name (e.g. ESV, KJV, NASB, ...).

Traditionally, all frontends that I know of have taken this abbreviated name
from the module name.  As Peter says, this is not very useful for foreign
language names, and also prohibits localised names.  For this reason we
proposed the Abbreviation in the conf file a couple of years ago to replace
use of the module name.  I think it was suggested that it have a soft
maximum length of about 14 - 16 characters, but I can't remember where that
number came from (maybe to accommodate places where the abbreviation was to
be used and space was limited).

This was largely agreed to, made its way onto the Wiki for the conf file
(with default value "The module name"), and then (to the best of my
knowledge) was never implemented by any frontend, including BPBible.  I
don't know if any modules now use it.  I still think it's a good idea (like
many other things), I have just never taken the time to implement it.

Jon
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