[sword-devel] New Windows SWORD GUI

[Chris Little]

You might consider teaming up with the group who are already working on a 
wxWindows interface to Sword.  I'm not sure what their current status is, 
but they have working code.  You can grab their existing code (as well as 
their Win32 binary) from http://sourceforge.net/projects/christiangame.  
They also have a mailing list on crosswire called wxsword-devel, but you 
should probably get in touch with Jason Turner (lefticus) through 
sourceforge first, if it looks like you're interested in collaboration.

Simon Lagendijk wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> A friend an I have the idea of making a new Bible tool, mainly aimed at 
> Windows users, because for Linux there are 2 nice Sword-based tools 
> available. We want to the program to run on at least Windows and Linux. 
> The code will be released under the GNU licence (or another OpenSource 
> licence, I don't know the differences between all those licences for 
> OpenSource software, so I'd have to figure out that first, before 
> choosing one).

If you're thinking of using Sword itself (statically or dynamically 
linked) or intend to support Sword modules by re-implementing our drivers, 
using our code as a spec, (which I would strongly recommend against 
attempting), I suppose that removes the need to decide on a license, since 
these would obligate you to follow the GPL and release your work under the 
same license.

> Are there any design-diagrams of Sword available, I mean Data Flow 
> Diagrams or UML or something like that? That maybe would save us some 
> time in the design phase...
> 
> I don't know if the auhors of Sword for Windows, BibleTime and 
> GnomeSword are reading this, but if they do: Do you mind if we use some 
> idea's of your GUI for our program (I'm not very good at designing User 
> Interfaces)?
> 
> Is it possible to compile the Sword Engine in a DLL?

Yes, but it's pretty much discouraged.  (Binary compatability between 
releases is not guaranteed in the dev branch.)

> We are searching for some OpenSource software development tools. I think 
> the most likely to use are the GNU C++ Compiler (MinGW) with the 
> wxWindows framework, but I haven't worked with wxWindows before, so 
> please can someone tell us if it can easely be used for the task we want 
> (i.e. creating a professional looking, multiplatform GUI)?
> 
> We also want to support OSIS documents (not only Sword-modules 
> containing OSIS markup, but real OSIS documents). Is OSIS 2.0, as 
> described on http://www.bibletechnologies.net/, the latest version? Will 
> future releases of the OSIS specification be backwards compatible?

There appears to be a 2.0.1 at 
http://www.bibletechnologies.net/osisCore.2.0.1.xsd.  Unless we find some 
huge mistake that we completely overlooked, you can assume OSIS releases 
beyond 2.0 will be more or less backwards compatible.  Each iteration of 
OSIS generally builds upon the previous ones.  Those elements, attributes, 
etc. of previous versions that need to be removed are simply deprecated in 
the a new release and scheduled for removal in the following release.

However, I would strongly recommend against trying to use OSIS documents
directly in an interface unless you build external indices (which is
precisely what Sword does).

> Some other features that are on our wishlist for the new program are:
> - Exporters (PDF/RTF/PlainText)
> - Online updating of document library (just like Sword for Windows), 
> supporting Sword modules, OSIS documents, and TheoDoc sources
> - Possibility to run from CD, without any installing needed
> 
> If you have any ideas, suggestions, comments, etc, please let us know!
> 
> In Christ,
> 
> Simon
> 
> PS> I have dropped the OSISEditor project I was working on. I tried to 
> use the RichTextBox as an OSIS edit component, but I didn't get it to do 
> what I wanted it to do...