[sword-devel] RE: [sword-support] RE: Sword Questions and Observations

[Tony Garland]

OK - I get the drift. I "discovered" the verse feature not long after I
started experimenting with the right mouse button.  I must say that it has
some nice properties (advantages over other techniques).

Some questions and observations concerning linking which come to mind:

1) Improved Linking Efficiency
   If a right-click occurs without an active selection,
   parse the item under the mouse and suggest it as the target
   for the dictionary lookup. An "item" would be any of the
   following:

	- a whitespace delimited word
	- an address (clicking anywhere over "John 3:16" would
        result in the full address being parsed)
	- within a # entry, the full list of verses

2) Immediate Link Lookup
   If the parse results in a single verse (the verse list
   has only a single item), then immediately perform the
   dictionary lookup (no pop-up menu).  This could be a
   configuration option.  Another approach would be to
   support double-(left)click for this--or even two
   single clicks over the same target without intervening
   actions.

3) Verse Lists from Arbitrary Selection
   Select a large piece of text. Right click parses the entire
   text looking for verse information and constructs a suitable
   verse list containing all verses within the selection.

4) Visual Emphasis of Verses from Text
   Although the current scheme allows any text to be used
   for a lookup operation, often it is verses that are of
   interest (such as using the TSK). Visually distinguishing
   verse addresses from surrounding text using a different
   color or font would be very helpful to quickly select
   them (by existing methods or any of the above).

Since one of the major strengths the computer brings to bear
for Bible study is ease of navigation, small improvements in
efficiency in this area would have a huge payback for lots
of users over time.

On another topic: what is the accepted method to move to
dictionary topics (shown in the right-pane) which are near
the end of the dictionary?  For example, how does one get
to "Z" entries in the ISBE?  Typing into the frame doesn't
initiate an alpha lookup and page down takes forever.
What am I missing here?

(As always, ideas/suggestions are a dime a dozen. Having
time to do something about them is another... :-))

> -----Original Message-----
> From: troy@mail.evergreen.com [mailto:troy@mail.evergreen.com]On Behalf
> Of Troy A. Griffitts
> Sent: Friday, February 25, 2000 11:39 AM
> To: Tony Garland; sword-devel@crosswire.org
> Subject: Re: [sword-support] RE: Sword Questions and Observations
>
>
> Tony, I'm moving this over to the developers' forum, as others may be
> interested in interacting...
>
>
> > Is there work underway to enable clicking on treasury references
> > to cause a bible 'target' window to > navigate to that address?
>
> I'm not sure what you've found out, but there are 2 methods for
> crossreferencing.  Unlike other standards like STEP, we have taken a
> different approach to key lookups.  We don't presume to know what
> modules might be installed or created in the future and thus do not
> 'hyperlink' any content of a module.  We allow a lookup 'attempt' on any
> content.  Thus, if you highlight text an then right click, you will get
> a 'Dictionary lookup' option.  This will attempt to lookup your
> highlighted text (or will default to word if no text is highlighted) in
> the currently active lexicon or dictionary.  We also attempt to parse as
> a 'verse reference' any highlighted text and give you the option to jump
> there in the Text / Commentary windows.  A final parse that me attempt
> on a right-click is to find a #verse list| syntax (these have been left
> over from the OLB texts that we have ported.  We then parse this as a
> verse list the same as if you had highlighted the entire syntax.
>
> > Is there work underway on a Java-based front end or something
> > that would run the modules within a browser frame (worse performance,
> > but no install needed and ability to host from a web site)?
>
> Chris Little has written a perl / cgi that allows publishing an
> installed SWORD module set via an http server.  You may download
> diatheke from our ftp site or see: http://bible.gotJesus.org for a
> demonstration.
>
> We also have the beginnings of java classes that work against an
> installed SWORD module set.  We use them for the .jsp's that make up our
> download page.  They may be checked out from the CVS repository as
> module name 'jsword'.
>
>
> > Is there documentation beyond the help file which describes what
> > features are being worked on or expected for the future?
>
> If you hang around the dev list for a little while you'll get some
> idea.  Please feel free to suggest or offer work on anything for which
> you may see a need.
>
> 	Thanks for all of your feedback.  Looking forward to
> working with you.
>
>
> 		-Troy.