[sword-devel] Copyright Scripture distribution

[Joel Mawhorter]

On Sat, 11 Dec 1999, you wrote:
> Den lør, 11 dec 1999 08:06:00 Joel Mawhorter skrev:
> > 
> ..
> >> 
> > If you are able to get permission to use/distribute this Turkish NT please let
> > me know! I would like to make a Unicode version. The limitation with SWORD
> > right now is that in order to use many translations with non-latin character
> > sets you have to encode them in one of the many different encoding "standards"
> > and then use an X server or Windows version designed/patched for that encoding
> > scheme. Any chance of Unicode support in SWORD, Troy?
> 
> Turkish uses latin letters since Kemal Ataturk. I believe it is ISO-8859-1
> In other words the problem is not so big here, but Unicode may be usefull for other modules like greek extended, chinese and a host of other non-european languages and multiligual documents, see for example 
> http://members.xoom.com/langkjer/teaching.xml
> 

All of the ISO-8859-x encodings are kludges to some extent (6 encodings just
for the latin character sets); 8 bits is still 8 bits, and in the case of
ISO-8859 you only really have 7 bits to play with. 

I looked at your page. I don't have an XML browser but I got the idea. I
also looked at the parent page and It looks like you have had a fair bit of
experince with Unicode and multilingual issues in general. That got me
wondering if their are enough people on this list who have enough interest and
experience to implement Unicode support in the SWORD project. The problem there
is that there is no Unicode support in C++ without buying or making a library
for it. My desire is to see Bible software that could be used for just about
any language (i.e. modules and user interface). This would be a great tool for
Christians around the world who can't get Bible software in their language. It
might be that adding support to SWORD is not the best way to go. If so, maybe
another project could be started under the same umbrella. I am interested in
anyone's feedback on this. 

Does anyone know if their is any way with the current SWORD frontends to
display texts in multiple encodings at the same time (e.g. ISO-8859-2 and -3)?

In Christ,

Joel

> Med venlig hilsen/Best regards
> Birger Langkjer
> http://members.xoom.com/langkjer