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Ben Morgan wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:bbb201fa0804302351s774cd955rdbf65dd31bd885a6@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hi,
In BPBible, regular expressions in the search are more provided for advanced
users. A regular expression builder would, I think, be very complicated.
BPBible allows wildcards, which are much simpler to use. A more detailed
description of how to search is at:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://code.google.com/p/bpbible/wiki/Search">http://code.google.com/p/bpbible/wiki/Search</a>
This should probably be integrated into BPBible so that users can easily get
at it
</pre>
</blockquote>
I admit that what I am advocating in regard to regular expressions is
for advanced users and not a high priority at the moment. That's
reasonable. I am just trying to raise the issue as a way to suggest
avenues for development that I haven't heard talked about before. I'm
trying to dream big.
<blockquote
cite="mid:bbb201fa0804302351s774cd955rdbf65dd31bd885a6@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">I could relatively easily add the font changing options. However, at the
moment BPBible supports English Bibles only. I need to have a look at
unicode support sometime soon (after InstallMgr, probably)
</pre>
</blockquote>
BPBible may only officially support English Bibles, but I had no
problem viewing the WLC or Vietnamese translations, both of which
require unicode. I actually could read Greek, Hebrew, and Vietnamese
using the SBL Hebrew font, so one could get by with just one font
(though it's mildly annoying). I did notice when I did a search in
Vietnamese that utilized only ascii characters that the search hits
list dropped all non ascii characters, but the verse viewer below
didn't. There were other signs that unicode support was lacking
(particularly in searches and dictionaries), but you could at least
read unicode texts. <br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:bbb201fa0804302351s774cd955rdbf65dd31bd885a6@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Parallel display is also something that could be done relatively easily. I
would probably integrate this into the verse compare pane, rather than into
the main pane.
(Doing items in parallel will presumably lead to a verse per line style,
unless something clever is done)
</pre>
</blockquote>
With the parallel display, you could have a button to toggle between
the parallel and stacked comparison because no doubt some people find
the stacked comparison useful. Having it display a verse per line would
be fine. When I'm using the parallel display my main objective is to
read one text and glance over at the other when I want to see how the
other text reads.
<blockquote
cite="mid:bbb201fa0804302351s774cd955rdbf65dd31bd885a6@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">I appreciate the Linux installation can be a bit more difficult. I think
this is more a lack of documentation, than anything else. It should boil
down to approximately the following:
Download BPBible and SWIG bindings
Extract SWIG bindings and bpbible
Go to package directory in the SWIG bindings and run:
./configure
make pythonswig
make python_make
cd python
python setup.py install
Go to the BPBible directory and run
python bpbible.py
You may need to add additional options at various stages (for example, you
may need to sudo before doing the bindings installation)
BPBible is missing the following features from SWORD for windows (there may
be others as well):
- Unicode support
</pre>
</blockquote>
Excellent.<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:bbb201fa0804302351s774cd955rdbf65dd31bd885a6@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap=""> - Note taking
- Search in non-bible books
</pre>
</blockquote>
This would be fantastic.<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:bbb201fa0804302351s774cd955rdbf65dd31bd885a6@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap=""> - Searching on strong's numbers and other lemmas
</pre>
</blockquote>
Excellent.<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:bbb201fa0804302351s774cd955rdbf65dd31bd885a6@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap=""> - It doesn't specially treat daily devotionals done properly
- Remote installation of modules
When I have time, I will try to add these features. Some are much easier
than others.
God Bless,
Ben
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness,
but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish,
but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)
On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 4:03 PM, Daniel Owens <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:dhowens@pmbx.net"><dhowens@pmbx.net></a> wrote:
</pre>
</blockquote>
Like I said before, BPBible is looking strong. In my mind, once all the
features you mention above are in place and there is support for
unicode locales, it could become a contender to replace BibleCS if the
latter isn't slated for much further development. Keep up the good work.<br>
<br>
Daniel<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:bbb201fa0804302351s774cd955rdbf65dd31bd885a6@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap=""></pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap=""> I took a look at BPBible, and it is indeed fairly feature rich and
pleasing to the eye. I especially like the way it handles looking up
dictionary entries. I would use it regularly if:
- Fonts could be set by language or module,
- Bibles could be viewed in parallel, either BibleTime or
BibleDesktop fashion, and
- and the Linux installation were a bit easier (I got stuck when
trying to install the swig bindings).
The project has made a strong start. The search dialog is pretty sharp,
though average users aren't familiar with regular expressions. A regular
expression builder dialog would be fantastic. The method that commentaries
are linked to the Bible text is great.
Daniel
Jonathan Morgan wrote:
On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 1:33 PM, Chris Little <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:chrislit@crosswire.org"><chrislit@crosswire.org></a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:chrislit@crosswire.org"><chrislit@crosswire.org></a> wrote:
Jonathan Morgan wrote:
> On a different point, if we genuinely believe that Sword for Windows
> is not or should not be undergoing active maintenance then we should
> probably remove it or de-emphasise it. It is quite understandable
> that an average user like him will look at the website, find a product
> entitled "The Sword Project for Windows", assume that it is the best
> software offered by CrossWire for Windows, try it, dislike it, and
> then avoid CrossWire software in future.
The SWORD Project for Windows is the only full-featured frontend for
Windows. Indeed, it is probably the most full-featured frontend for
Sword, period. You can complain about the interface. I think there are
definitely easier to use and more polished programs (at least in some
respects), but they are all lacking features.
I don't want to get into a lengthy debate, but a full featured system
that is not used will not help anything. I, for one, will not use
Sword for Windows in its current state, and I think you can see in his
response to it how the average user will respond. [note that I have
considerable exposure to usability ideas, so I tend to view
goal-directed design and usability as more important than feature
lists.]
Bible Desktop suffers the inherent lag of JSword behind Sword (so
drivers for GenBooks, for example, are still lacking I believe).
GnomeSword may once have been buildable on Cygwin, but it isn't
presently. And SwordBible certainly shows some definite promise, but I
think it's still a bit basic at present.
How about BPBible? I'll willingly admit to bias here, but I claim
that it supports most features that ordinary users will actually use
(Install Manager style support is an exception, but that is currently
a work in progress), and does so in a way that I hope means users will
like it and use it.
Regarding the review in general, I can't help thinking we were a bit
cheated. We got low marks on support, though we've actually got very
good, prompt support at present (between email & the forums). I find no
record of the unanswered email he claims to have sent, so I'm willing to
place the fault on him (such as he didn't actually send the email, he
managed to make it look very spammy to the filters, or he acted like a
jerk (since I just delete rude messages)). His discussion of the forums
is just plain inaccurate.
I'm still pretty well certain that we have the widest selection of
modules among free programs, too, so it's a bit annoying that programs
who've copied our library got higher marks. It seems like we ought to
get a little credit for the fact that The Word, e-Sword, Online Bible,
and Zefania are all enjoying content that came from us.
I would have thought that e-Sword has more modules than we do.
Anyway, you can't really expect a person investigating the usefulness
of available software to determine whether it has been helped by the
work of others.
Only a 3 of 5 for extensibility? Based on his own criteria, he's wrong.
His assessments of the UI & searching are partly legitimate and partly
due to inadequate documentation (which is to say that he doesn't know
about the search functionality) or his not reading the documentation.
Again from the usability point of view, I claim that if a person
cannot use a feature, the fact that it is there does not help them.
However, I have certainly had no trouble searching with Sword for
Windows.
Jon
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
</pre>
<pre wrap="">
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</blockquote>
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