[sword-devel] Unicode Bible program

[Torsten Uhlmann]

Qt2 supports Unicode, the HTML widget in Bibletime supports Unicode as
well (see www.mosfet.org for an example). The backend of BibleTime uses
QString as string representation which supports fully Unicode.

There is a free lib from IBM (with sources) which supports Unicode
(ICU). But I don't know what it exactly does.


>>>>> "Joachim" == Joachim Ansorg <Jockel123@gmx.de> writes:

    > I don't know exactly, but as far as I know QT 2.x supports
    > Unicode. It should be possible to make use of it.

    > --Joachim

    >> > Hello everyone, > > As I've mentioned before on this list, I'm
    >> interested in a Bible program that > can used with languages that
    >> are not Latin based (i.e. don't use ASCII or > ISO-8895
    >> encodings). I have the following options and I would appreciate >
    >> comments on them.  > > 1. Find free Bible software that supports
    >> Unicode.  > 2. Modify SWORD to support Unicode.  > 3. Create a
    >> new Bible program that is focused on Unicode support.
    >> 
    >> My vote goes to 2: we can make the most impact by combining
    >> efforts.  Collaboration is to be valued more highly than
    >> individual effort in this area.
    >> 
    >> > I've looked for free Bible software that supports Unicode and I
    >> haven't been > able to find any. (If anyone here knows of a
    >> program that I've missed, please > let me know).
    >> 
    >> There is an effort called JBible.  I don't remember any more
    >> about it than that.  Try a search on Google and you'll probably
    >> find them.
    >> 
    >> > Since SWORD is written in C++, Unicode support would have to be
    >> done with a third > party library. Using a library would allow
    >> processing of Unicode text but there > isn't any consistent way
    >> to render Unicode text across platforms. I'm not really >
    >> familiar with the SWORD code; would anyone care to comment on how
    >> easy it would > be to subclass SWText to create a Unicode text
    >> class? Does anything in the > parent classes assume 8 bit chars?
    >> 
    >> I'll leave this to Troy for comment.
    >> 
    >> > Creating a new program has some potential. Java would be the
    >> obvious choice for > a language since Unicode support is native
    >> and it has a standard > cross-platform way to render Unicode
    >> text. Also, new software wouldn't burden > SWORD with a lot of
    >> code that would only be used for Unicode texts. Troy, would > it
    >> be possible to include new software like this under the SWORD
    >> umbrella?
    >> 
    >> Java is cool.  Java is neat.  Java is slow.  I wrote my first
    >> prototype frontend in Java and it killed the machine.  I'd be
    >> interested to see how it performs in the new GCC 2.95 compiler
    >> suite.  They have a Java compiler called gcj.  I've downloaded
    >> it, but haven't played around yet.
    >> 
    >> > I am curious what people think about this. Clearly there is a
    >> need for free > Bible software that handles non-European
    >> languages/scripts.
    >> 
    >> I couldn't agree more.  We need to make this happen so that
    >> Christian missions and non-English-speaking churches can have
    >> resources at their disposal without having to pay through the
    >> nose for products that they have no say about.
    >> 
    >> > What is the best > way to make it happen?
    >> 
    >> Find someone to pay you to work on it full time.  ;-)
    >> 
    >> Paul --------- "He must become greater; i must become less." -
    >> John 3:30 http://www.bigfoot.com/~paulgear
    >> 
    >> P.S.  If people haven't heard, i've shut down my OpenBible
    >> project, which was to be a GNOME frontend for Sword.  See
    >> <http://gear.apana.org.au/OpenBible> for details.
    > -- BibleTime - the bible study program for KDE
    > http://www.bibletime.de/ info@bibletime.de

-- 

best regards,
Torsten Uhlmann

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TUhlmann@gmx.de
TUhlmann@debis.com

http://www.tuhlmann.purespace.de
http://www.bibletime.de
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wise men still seek him!