[sword-devel] New Project Idea: MozSword

[Don A. Elbourne Jr.]

I think this is a great idea. But why stop at a simple Mozilla sidebar? Why
not an entire full featured Mozilla embedded XUL application?

For those not familiar with XUL, XUL is an XML-based User Interface
Language.
See
http://www.mozilla.org/xpfe/xptoolkit/
http://www.xulplanet.com/
http://mozilla.org/projects/embedding/

I have toyed around with XUL a little and it looks simple enough. I have put
together a Sword looking UI with it. See screenshots:
http://elbourne.org/sword/xul/screenshots/

Of course there is no real functionality to this yet, because quite frankly,
I have not learned that far yet. But it does give a glimpse at what is
possible. In the screenshots you will see that I have created the 4 box
model. with the Biblical text and commentaries on the top and the
lexicon/dictionary on the bottom. The boxes can be collapsed just like the
Mozilla sidebar.

Even in the quick little XUL interface I threw together, I can switch
between tabs for the different versions. Right now, regular old-fashioned
HTML pages are being displayed in the XUL rendition of inline frames, but
they do work.

Menu bars are easy to create with the built in XUL widgets. Menus can be
created on the fly, like for bookmarks and such. This is the way Mozilla
handles their bookmarks and Sword bookmarks would not be very different. The
dynamic data is stored in RDF.

the only menu function I have working now is the File>Exit  It is literaly
this simple:
<menuitem label="Exit" accesskey="x" oncommand="window.close();"/>

I do not have any dialogs done, but if you have seen the Mozilla browser,
you can see what is possible with XUL... just about everything.

Screenshots 5-7 show different Mozilla skins that are easy to implement and
drastically change the look of the client. Would that raise the coolness
factor or what? lol


by grace alone,

Don A. Elbourne Jr.
http://elbourne.org



----- Original Message -----
From: <hoshie@cox.net>
To: <sword-devel@crosswire.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 7:22 PM
Subject: [sword-devel] New Project Idea: MozSword


> Hello All,
>
> I am planning on undertaking a new project. MozSword will use the Mozilla
Sidebar. The sidebar allows you to store mini webpages about any topic. How
does SWORD fit into this?
> Simple. MozSword will be a Mozilla sidebar tab that allows users to pick
versions of the Bible in the tab and to input search terms. The search will
be processed by the CGI version of Diatheke. These following versions of the
english Bible will be used:
>
> A Conservative Version
> American Standard Version
> Bible in Basic English
> Bible in Worldwide English
> Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner Revision
> Darby Bible
> International Standard Version
> King James Version
> Revised Standard Version
> Twentieth Century New Testament
> World English Bible
> Webster Bible
> Weymouth NT
> Young's Literal Translation
>
> (I am only using English versions since English is my native language.)
>
> MozSword will do a lot of good. MozSword will be a way to extend SWORD to
OSes that do not have a front-end yet (BeOS, Solaris, Mac OS, OS/2, etc.)
but have a version of Mozilla available for the OS (Mozilla is available for
all of these OSes and more). It will also be a more easy way for Mozilla
users to search the Bible without leaving their current webpage.
>
> There are a few sticky areas I have not resolved as yet that I am asking
for RFCs on:
>
> 1. Hosting: I am planning to host the project on one of four places:
>
> a) MozDev
> b) SourceForge
> c) My own server
> d) Crosswire
>
> 2. Licenses: Mozilla is licensed under the MPL/LGPL/GPL. SWORD is under
the GPL. I am planning to license under GPL; however I am undecided as of
yet.
>
> 3. I'll need help with versions of MozSword with different Bible versions
in different languages.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Joshua
>