[bt-devel] Feature plan

[Martin Gruner]

Hi,

Am Mit, 05 Jul 2000 schrieb Joachim Ansorg:

> > Hi Martin!
>
> > > Release 0.3:
> > > ---------
> > > -bug fixes for:
> > > 	o Drag&Drop: If you drag a module ina edit widget the whole chapter of
> > > 	"Genesis 1" is inserted. The type of Drah should be checked (and it
> > > should be denied if it's a wrong type)
> >
> > I don't understand this. Now only the first verse is inserted. Should the
> > whole chapter be inserted? Why? And which chapter?
> > What type of drag should be denied?
>
> Ok, my bad enlish ;-)
>
> I'll try to explain better:
>
> If you start dragging a module of the groupmanager around you started a
> "module-drag", but since the edit widget uses dropped verse references it
> shouldn't accept module-drags !
> But at te moemnt it does accept module-drags - the first chapter of Genesis
> is inserted. Module-drags should be denied.

I'll try. But I prefer just to insert nothing, not to deny the drag. (it is 
easier and faster)

>
> Do you understand?
>
> > > 	o Searchdialog: Some problems with the search analysis (my part)
> > >
> > > 	o Commentary presenter, the combo vboxes are not refreshed if you drag
> > > a verse reference on it (my part, maybe a backend bug)
> > >
> > > 	o Put a QWhatsThis help on every widget
> >
> > Good! though i didn't manage to see the tips.
>
> Really?
> Edit the toolbar and put the WhatsThis button on the bar or press SHIFT+F1
> and click on a widget.

Ok. It worked.

>
> > > Release 0.4:
> > > ---------
> > > Release 0.4 is the next release after 0.3. It shouldn't take half a
> > > year as 0.3 did ;-)
> > >
> > > -New features of 0.4:
> > > 	o Printing: Really necessary for a real usage of BibleTime. Should use
> > > a good layouted printdialog (like the oe in 0.2) and should support
> > > useful features. The features need discussion.
> >
> > Yes!
> >
> > > 	o Module installer dialog: IMHO it's useful because lots  of newbies
> > > ahve problems with bash and it's commands (setting permissions, using
> > > groups, unpacking, configuration of SWORD etc.). This will hopefuly
> > > reduce the support mails.
> >
> > Good. Too difficult for me.
>
> I'll try it. A thing I would like to do a very long time! I hope it's not
> so difficult as you say ;-)
>
> > > 	o Some improvements of the searchdialog:
> > > 		- Better layout
> > > 		- Maybe reg-exp widget
> > > 		- Improvements to the search analysis (e.g. drawing to an image and
> > > scroll the image)
> >
> > Good. I suggest displaying solid bars.
>
> Solid bars? Whats this? I'm missing a German translation. Do you mean bars
> like I did in 0.2 ?
> Using bars it's difficult to show results for more than one module.

I don't know whether it is possible, but I thought of solid color bars (like 
0.2). Each module would have a bar for each book. Those bars could be shifted 
vertically and/or horizontally, so that they would not hide each other. The 
smallest bar could be left at the bottom line, the next bigger bar would be a 
little more right. 0 size bars would not be displayed. Only thoughts, anyway..
You get the idea? The searchanylysis should also include some statistics, like 
the search string ;-) , how many thimes found in each module, book etc...

>
> > > -Things that have to be discussed for 0.4:
> > > 	o Plugin support
> > > 	This is useful for future extensions of BibleTime
> >
> > ok. needs a perfect interface.
>
> Couldn't we add functions later? I have at the moment no idea of coding
> plugin support.

I don't either. Who should do it?

>
> > > 	o KParts supports
> > > 	Use presenters as KParts. Together with plugin support this could
> > > introduce user-made presenters or easy extandibilty of BibleTime if new
> > > moduletypes are introduced. Memory-Saving because they are only loaded
> > > at runtme if they are required.  Not sure if it's really useful.
> >
> > It would be useful, but might turn out to be very difficult.
>
> You are right. Very difficult but useful for user extensions.
>
> > > 	o Threading: We should try to tread BibleTime so it's usable even
> > > ehilw searching
> >
> > That would be my part - at least to try it. I didn't get an answer in
> > sword-devel to my question if sword is thread safe yet.
>
> I read some pages (Introduction to GNU PTh, a page about threaded KDE
> programs (attached to this mail)).
> IMHO it's possible to use threads in BibleTime if QT/KDE have one thread
> and SWORD has an own one.
> All queries etc. should be send to the SWORD thread so there are no threads
> accessing SWORD modules at the same time!
> But I've no idea.

I prefer using real pthreads. Do we only want to thread the search or more 
functions?

>
> > > 	o Sermon backend
> > > 	Will improve usability. But it's not SWORD related so it may break
> > > 	standards.
> > > 	Has somebody tested GNOMESword ? I was unable to compile it. Doesn't
> > > it have something like a sermon part?
> >
> > That might be one with the kparts. could be done as the first plugin -
> > since it is not sword related.
>
> Yes, will be difficult. First we would need a kparts plugin support.
> But we may also implement a second backend since BibleTime is designed to
> support multiple backends.
>
> > btw, there are still problems with the backend (strong numbers, ...) I'll
> > look at this and inform you.
>
> problems?
>
> > > As you can see we have some nice ideas and things to do for 0.4. But we
> > > need discussions to improve usability and usage of these features.
> > > Otherwise we would break the usability of BT!
> > >
> > > -Important things:
> > > 	o Would you use these things ?
> > > 	o How would you improve them for best usability?
> > > 	o What's missing in the feature list for 0.3 / 0.4 ?
> > >
> > >
> > > Please post your comments!
> > >
> > > --Joachim
> >
> > Martin
>
> --Joachim
Martin