[jsword-devel] Bible Desktop Comments

[Eric Galluzzo]

Folks,

I just took the application for a fairly extensive test run -- my first
in a long time!  Here are some notes I took as I was doing so about
things that could be improved, and some suggestions for new features.  I
should be able to help out with implementing some of these suggestions
too.  (Famous last words....)

        Thanks,
        
        Eric
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Notes taken on a computer running the nightly build launched around 8pm 8/27/04
    - Fedora Core 2
    - Athlon 1600+
    - 256MB RAM
    - JDK 1.4.2_05

Installation dialog:
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Cannot see any bibles until hitting "Update Index" for the first time
Need a progress bar (even with .setIndeterminate(true)) instead of two dialogs
Cannot see all of the text on the "Values" column of the table
"Keys" and "Values" are not very friendly column titles
Key names are internal names, not user-friendly names
Perhaps replace the keys/values table with an HTML description of the module
Aren't there general books (e.g. some of Josephus' works) available?

Sidebar:
--------
Readings might be a little prettier if they were bulleted
Selecting a commentary should (possibly) display the comments for the currently displayed passage
I don't see any entries after selecting "Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary"
    - I think it's waiting for me to type something in, but that's not obvious from the UI
    - When I tried to type something into the text field, it didn't work
    - Maybe the sidebar text area should clear or display a message like "Type a word in the text field above to see its definition."
Selecting a commentary does not display the contents of that commentary for the passage shown (e.g. Gen 1:1)
I don't see any pictures in the Illustrated New Testament ;)

Options:
--------
Even after installation, there are no bibles/dictionaries/commentaries to select from for the defaults ("Bibles" item)
Many of the options are rather user-unfriendly and need help text, e.g.:
    - What's "ot1nt2"?
    - What's "Persistent Naming"?
    - The user is never going to input a L&F class name
Some "options" have only one selectable item (e.g. "Configurable Stylesheet" in "Bible Display"), so they're not really options :)
It's not obvious that "Advanced" has items of its own (although that's probably just me)
My tree has only horizontal lines, no vertical lines

Main text:
----------
Pretty!
It would be nice to either:
    - put the footnotes to the right side of the text where they occur; or
    - have Back/Forward buttons to jump back and forth
If there is no OT or NT text for a book, would be nice to display a message to that effect instead of a blank screen
Each time the daily reading link is clicked, a new tab opens (even if the same link is clicked twice)
The default font is a little odd (with Metal L&F at least)
    - In particular, footnotes are hard to read
    - What about anti-aliasing?
Nothing happened when I clicked on a link to a Strong's number
    - I think it was building the index

Main GUI:
---------
Need a Mozilla-style or Eclipse-style X button to close a tab; I think Ctrl-W is the standard accelerator
The "More ..." tab is a little odd (not "conventional" UI)
    - What about a link or something instead?  Although that wouldn't allow random access, hmmm...
    - Or could display an entire chapter in one tab
The "..." button (Passage Lookup) seems to be a button inside a button, rather odd-looking with Metal L&F
The "Go" button looks out of place in the Passage Lookup section
    - Maybe it could go on the same line as the "View" field (although this would be inconsistent with the other Go buttons)
    - In any case, the "Go" button moves depending on whether you have Passage Lookup or one of the other radio buttons selected
Tooltip for "Search" is huge
    - Maybe this belongs in a little help popup or something
    - Certainly the tooltip disappears before I can read it all
After searching for a passage ("balaam / balak" in YLT 1898, as per the tooltip) without an index pre-built:
    - I got a progress bar that showed it searching
        - It stayed at 0% while "Finding Words" (although it showed lots of books & chapters as it went)
        - Only when "Writing words" did the progress start to go up
    - I got a blank screen for the search results
    - Searching again (after the index was created) produced the correct search results
Searching works with Greek, excellent!
What's the difference between Search and Match?
After switching to sub-window mode, the sub-windows can be very wide (> 1 screen width)
    - Maybe limit them to the size of the JDesktop
Performing a Search or Match at least sometimes seems to switch back to Passage Lookup
    - Seems more intuitive to leave the use where they are
    - If they want to go back to Passage Lookup, they can click it themselves
A few more icons in various places would be nice:
    - Days for daily readings (e.g. a calendar)
    - Dictionary entries
    - Verse list entries
Building two indices at once slowed my machine to a crawl
    - At one point in the middle, I lowered then raised the Bible Desktop window; it took at least 5 minutes to redraw

About box:
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Appears to be in a tab for no particular reason
Just shows the version, seems kinda pointless
    - Maybe add a list of developers or something
I tried turning on "Advanced tabs" in the About dialog, but nothing happened

Suggested features:
-------------------
What about a parallel version mode, where verses are shown side-by-side in different translations?
    - Sub-window mode is not the same; verses may not line up
Would be nice if "See marginal note on ..." were a hyperlink
For Greek or Hebrew texts, show hover-help for each word with basic definition (from default Greek/Hebrew dictionary)
For Greek or Hebrew texts, have a RMB menu to open a dictionary for the selected text or something
In View Source, it would be nice to have the source syntax-highlighted and maybe tidied
Find occurrences of various forms of Greek/Hebrew words
    - e.g. blepo, blepeis, eidon, blepamenos, etc. could all match a search for blepein
Print would be nice (although I personally probably wouldn't use it)