[sword-devel] Java Bibles

[Joe Walker]

(I wrote this a couple of days ago, but not seen it on the lists yet so I guess it
got lost somewhere. Sorry if you've all seen this already.)

Hi,

I've not heard of any problems yet, so I'll asume that no-one has hit any major
hitches. Some things to try with the download:

Best Match: It does some fuzzy matching so that "For God so loves the world" gets
a match (The original says "loved" not "loves") The easiest route into Best Match
is to start the ToolShed, turn on the built in webserver (Server tab), and browse
to http://localhost:8080/examples/servlet/SPage in NS/IE,
then select Best Match from the drop down.

Passage Maths: Perhaps best on the command line (although there is a Javascript
parser in the ToolShed). An example:
$ search -m "[gen 1 1-10, Revelation 6:1] - [mat-rev]"
This takes a list of verses (the first 10 in the Bible plus one in Revelation) and
removes all the verses in the NT. The idea is that it should parse a passage
reference in any way you are likely to type it in, and is designed to be
internationalizable.

XML Data Sources: Using the ToolShed web server - click "Config" in a browser
window and try changing the way Bible pages are formatted and the way Web Pages
are formatted. The idea is that you can make your view look like an Oxford AV
Bible, or an NIV or whatever.

Flexible Bible Sources: Not something that is easy to demonstrate since to save
space I only included the AV text. The system is designed so that I can add a
Sword format reader, and a GBF format reader and so on. There are currently 3
understood formats RAW (designed to save download time) SER (designed to be fast)
and JDBC (my read-only reference source). It currently converts between all the
formats that it knows about. If you really want to play, and have time to spare
the ToolShed will generate a RAW format AV from the SER format provided.

Bible Mapping: If you are really patient you could try the Mapper. The idea is
that it creates a map of Bible verses, drawing lines along books, putting verses
that are similar together where possible (using the Best Match stuff above)
However it is very slow. Shout if you want to know more.

Plans for the Future:
We have a working thesaurus (not part of the download - We've used WordNet) and
we're working on a system where we can ask questions like "Where was Abraham
born?" - the thesaurus knows that Abraham = Abram and that Ur is a place (WorldNet
understands word senses), and so searches for verses with Abram,Abraham, and a
place name. Hopefully finding Ur. Yes it is fanciful, but I live in hope!
Strongs numbering. I had a VB prototype system that would answer questions like
"How is this word translated" but I've not had time to integrate it yet.

I've not had time to re-build my computer yet so all the above it from memory.
Sorry if anything is unclear. Please shout if you have problems.

With love in Christ.

Joe.