[sword-devel] clean bible or bad phantasy?

[Daniel Russell]

Patrick Narkinsky wrote:

>Does this mean I should run off in a huff because I don't like the KJV?  No
>... I just let them do their thing and I do my own. If you produce a module
>that doesn't have vowel points, I'm SURE you could put it on your own
>website, and I imagine that Crosswire would put it in the modules list. Even
>if it required a software mod to work, you could still do it, because sword
>is GPL.
>
>However, it seems like you want someone else to do the work for you.
>
>That's not how open source software works: you have to scratch your own
>itch. I don't "feel an itch" for an unvoweled Masoretic text, so I'm
>unlikely to volunteer to work on one.  I do feel "an itch" for an aspirated
>Westcott-Hort with UBS4 variants (contrary to popular belief, Paleographers
>think that the earliest Greek texts WERE aspirated, just not accented), so I
>might well work on that one.  I don't "feel an itch" for a Windows version
>of Sword, so I don't mess with it.  I do feel an itch for a Mac OS X
>version, so I scratch it. I also don't feel an itch for a Mac OS 9 version
>of sword - so I do all my development in cocoa.  If you don't know how,
>learn!  That's what all the rest of us had to do.
>  
>
You're right. But to clarify what i was saying:
1) This is a de facto project and is going to be where people get their 
tools from. Simply relegating tools to other sites is not satisfactory, 
except when those tools are way off-base (for example: not about the 
Bible!).
2) I am open minded here. The analogy of the KJV is a bad one, since i'm 
saying exactly the opposite: that we should include tools whenever we 
can, only shunning those that are not authentic or that stray too 
independent of the Scripture itself. The more (worthy) translations 
should be included as much as possible (not translations which obviously 
lie and corrupt the text --- for example, removing passages that condemn 
homosexuality, and publishing a "translation" for gays, is not 
acceptable, and such works should be excluded, as they are not authentic).
3) I just joined up with this group, and i have been studying to 
develop. I was simply urging against the attitude of unreasonable 
censorship. Because as i mentioned above, the project is THE project for 
Biblical study on the computer, excluding projects from the mainline is 
essentially censoring them and limiting the access users will have to them.

As someone kindly pointed out, there should be a filter feature to turn 
off the vowels in Hebrew texts, although i was unaware of this (does 
this exist in BibleTime? i could not find it).

I hope egos won't get in the way here, since this is not an issue of me 
or you or what we have done or do, or what not. This is merely an issue 
of what is best for the project, which theoretically is everyone's 
project, i hope.

I hope greatly to contribute, and i have been looking at the interfaces 
and where they fall short. The first project i plan to work on is making 
a list of all the "little" problems that slow me down when using the 
interfaces. My greatest contribution will be to that realm. I used 
"E-sword" on Windows everyday for a couple of hours, and thus learned 
exactly what makes studying with computer tools efficient. There is a 
lot of work to be done in this area, i hope to contribute in improving 
and critiquing the interfaces for Sword. (Are these related btw?).

I am currently studying Hebrew and will eventually contribute a lot more 
to that realm... and eventually to the Greek work too, but right now i 
am not up to snuff. Believe me, i wish i was, and i hope i will be 
within the next year or two, able to contribute a lot more to the Hebrew 
and Greek aspects.