[jsword-devel] JSword GoBible Creator

[Stephen Denne]

On 13 July 2009 4:08 a.m. DM Smith wrote:
> On Jul 12, 2009, at 4:36 AM, Stephen Denne wrote:
> 
> > I've started work on creating a GoBible creator that uses 
> jsword for  
> > its bible source.
> > I've got it working as an eclipse project in a workspace that also  
> > has the jsword & bibletime projects.
> 
> Cool. Do you use both BibleTime and JSword for this?
> 
> How is Eclipse for C++ development of BibleTime?

Sorry, I made a mistake, as I meant to say BibleDesktop, not BibleTime.
i.e. Java

It only uses the jsword API.

However I've done a bit a c programming in the past for PalmOS, using Metrowerks CodeWarrior. Palm switched their supported IDE to
eclipse, and it is a much much nicer IDE than the Metrowerks CodeWarrior family.

> > My test modules have been ESV & NETfree.
> > I disabled most of the GoBibleCreator "Collections" concept,  
> > thinking that they could be added back in later on once I 
> got things  
> > working.
> > By adapting a stylesheet to produce text output instead of HTML,  
> > most of the format transformation work comes very easily.
> > ESV has red-letters for Christ's words, which I've managed to get  
> > working (for ESV) too.
> 
> We need to be a bit careful here. The ESV and NET Bibles are  
> copyrighted and need to have permission to be used as a GoBible  
> module. This might already be the case. As we (both CrossWire and  
> GoBible) negotiate copyright permissions we are trying to obtain  
> permissions for both platforms. If these are currently 
> available as a  
> GoBible modules then there shouldn't be any copyright issues.

One reason I mentioned them was to find out what the answer was.
On one hand its format shifting, on the other, is GoBible now a supported CrossWire front end for viewing the sword modules?
Do the conf files have an entry that can be used to determine what is allowed with them?

> >
> > What next steps do you think I should work on?
> >
> > I definitely think a GUI is required to select a module, chose  
> > various options, select output destination.
> 
> I have not used GoBible (my phone does not support Java :( ) so I'm  
> not sure. A gui would be a good thing. Better would be a 
> simple class  
> that would represent what a GUI would need to present. Then 
> any JSword  
> frontend could provide a face to the builder.

That's how I'd structure it.

The "Collections" files which GoBibleCreator used are a mixture of specifying how to break up the text, or produce a JavaME Midlet
that contains only a portion of the bible (in order to work on those cellphones with next to no storage space) along with lots of
other options for how to produce the midlet.

> I'd be glad to add this as a project under JSword's svn and give you  
> ownership of it.

That would be good.

> >
> > I thought perhaps an Alkitab module might be an appropriate simple  
> > distribution scheme.
> 
> Do you mean plug-in? Alkitab is based on Sun's NetBeans. I'm curious  
> if you could develop for it within Eclipse?

Yes, a standard netbeans plug-in, not distributed with Alkitab, but perhaps showing up in its list of installable plug-ins.

I probably could, but I imagine that developing a netbeans plug-in within netbeans would be easier.

> BTW, I'm blind copying David Haslam on this as he might not 
> be on this  
> mailing list and I'm sure he'd be interested.
> 
> In Him,
> 	DM

Thanks,
Stephen Denne.