[mobile-devel] New build of bible for Android o/s

Mon Jul 26 01:57:10 MST 2010

Hi Dave/SonWon,

Verse Predictor:
I haven't seen this auto-current-verse in the other bible viewer apps I have
used.  In Pocket e-Sword I always had to pick the current verse in a
book/chapter/verse selector, but I thought the app should just know which
verse I am reading because it is showing it to me, so when I switch from
verse to commentary the commentary automatically shows the verse I was
reading.  Well that was the idea and I hacked in some code which just
calculates current distance from the top of the page and total no. verses in
chapter to guess the current verse.  It really was meant to be a prototype
but if you keep your eye on the verse label you can use screen position to
accurately set current verse no. ready for a hop to the commentary.  I agree
it does need to be improved and I have various ideas for that, some simple
which just improve the algorithm and others, more accurate, which look for a
tag prior to the verse currently centred on the screen to fix the verse.

Scroll last Verse to Top:
This was one small frustration which probably decided me to write a bible
app I could alter.  In Pocket e-sword pages would change one whole page at a
time until you reached the last page, which would judder to a halt where the
bottom of teh page touched the bottom of the screen, leaving you to scan the
page frantically for the line you last read.  I did suggest to the author
that he added some padding at the bottom of each page to circumvent the
problem but to no avail.  However, on Android there is no Page-Down but all
scrolling is 'smooth'  by dragging or just a few lines using the trackball
so I don't know if we need to add this padding.  What was your reason for
this request?

Label and Content Delay
The event driven aspect of the system gives rise to the confusing timing
between chapter label and chapter content because both the label and content
manager are notified at the same time to change verse but obviously it is
quicker to update a label than get content.  The problem probably only
emerged in the last release due to the introduction of a background thread
to load content.  This issue won't be so bad on fast phones like the Nexus
and could be relieved by displaying an hourglass, which I keep meaning to
do.  A more complex alternative might involve adjusting the event mechanism.
 I'll probably try a simple hourglass first.

Font:
I thought a lot about fonts, colours, etc and was trying to get a good
default font/colour/spacing etc. and eventually plan to allow adjustments.
 I considered a default white on black font as I had always thought that it
was supposed to be easier to read but having researched afresh I am not so
sure.  If anybody has some references on the best fonts, colour, spacing,
etc for easy-reading I would be interested.  One guide for me (although it
may not seem like it now) is Alkido (but I ditched the serif fonts) and also
various other bible programs on Android.

Next release:
I am making some progress on the search module which just doesn't seem to
work in any previous build.  I thought we would have to download pre-built
indexes because the default JSword index creation code would run for a long
timer then throw an OutOfMemory exception but I have tweaked the code and it
seems to run ok on my G1 now and 'only' take about 15-20 mins, which I hope
is acceptable.  Also, searching works fine on the new indexes created, which
it doesn't on the current batch of downloaded indexes.  I will probably
initially limit indexes and searching to bibles because that allows me to
save some time on index creation.

Naming:
Thanks for your thoughts on naming.  I was quite keen on using a name with
scripture in it as one person suggested e.g. 'Scripture Viewer' but am
currently being outvoted by my daughters who like 'and God said...'.

Best regards
Martin

On 26 July 2010 03:40, <forslund at mail.com> wrote:

>  Some observations on this new version:
>
> When I swipe to a new chapter, the chapter label at the top changes and
> then much later the page shows up.  This can be a little confusing.  I don't
> always get the chapter I want because of this long delay.
>
> Can I change the font and line spacing?   I like to have white on black and
> a bigger font, but I don't see any way to change them.
>
> It is getting better all the time!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: SonWon <sonwon.1 at gmail.com>
> To: All things related to SWORD mobile development. <
> mobile-devel at crosswire.org>
> Sent: Sun, Jul 25, 2010 3:35 pm
> Subject: Re: [mobile-devel] New build of bible for Android o/s
>
>  Martin,
>
>  Like you said the verse location is only a predictor, anyway to improve
> the accuracy?  Also, I think the verse should change when the the verse
> number reaches the top line.  And I think I should be able to scroll the
> last verse to the top of the screen.
>
>  Thank you for your work on this it is a GREAT start!
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 5:53 PM, SonWon <sonwon.1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Martin, I'll check it out.
>>
>>
>>   On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Martin Denham <mjdenham at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>>  Hi,
>>>
>>>  I have done another build of the bible and put it at
>>> http://code.google.com/p/and-bible/downloads/list.  Today's build is
>>> AndBible-0.0.4.apk.  This build includes the following enhancements and
>>> fixes:
>>>
>>>    - better visual pages
>>>    - use WebView instead of TextView
>>>    - noticeably faster due to use of WebView
>>>    - adjust font and line spacing
>>>    - pop-up footnotes & cross-references and allow navigation direct to
>>>    cross-references (works well with ESV)
>>>    - options page for display options e.g. turn off verse numbers,
>>>    notes, ...
>>>    - fix - page forward/back in a commentary which sometimes caused a
>>>    blank screen
>>>    - fix swipe sensitivity problem affecting Droid
>>>
>>> To install the bible from scratch you need to do the following:
>>>
>>>    - expand SdcardBibles.zip onto your mobiles sdcard so you get a
>>>    directory in the root of your sdcard named 'jsword'
>>>    - install the apk by running 'adb install AndBible-0.0.4.apk'
>>>
>>>  Best Regards
>>> Martin
>>>
>>>  _______________________________________________
>>> mobile-devel mailing list
>>> mobile-devel at crosswire.org
>>> http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-devel
>>>
>>>
>>
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