[sword-devel] LcdBible alpha 0.60a prototype available

[Chris Little]

Lynn,

On Tue, 9 Dec 2003, Lynn Allan wrote:

> With it's orientation to children/missionaries/non-techies, ...

I haven't really commented on the targets of this, but I think it deserves
a little outside input.  You can consider what I have to say or not.  
It's your project, and even if you eventually decide that the end product
is completely useless, you'll have gained considerable knowledge of Sword, 
so that may be of some benefit.

Children and missionaries are pretty widely differing groups.  In fact, 
children represent many widely differing groups, based on age & gender, 
and missionaries represent many widely different groups, based on mission, 
sending agency, field of service, etc.  I don't know that you can 
create a tool that is meaningfully distinct from BibleCS and yet somehow 
serves these groups better.

Children are going to use their parents' computers.  If they're very 
young (just learning to read) you'll want to present a big interface so 
it's easy for them to click the right buttons and you'll want to present 
big, easy-to-read fonts.  The issue for children might come down to 
keeping their attention with eyecandy and slicing the data into easily 
digestible chunks.

Missionaries are people too.  By and large, missionaries don't run around 
with hardware any more outdated than the rest of us.  (Okay, maybe not US, 
but normal people who upgrade every few years.)

Also, any missionary who found the interface I just described personally
beneficial probably doesn't belong on the field.  (Using the above
interface as a tool for missions, possibly in literacy or something like
that might be reasonable.)  Missionaries tend to know the Bible pretty
well, and tend to be pretty smart people, at that.  I think most sending
agencies require at least a BA, and most of their missionaries have
degrees in Biblical studies, missiology, or such.  They probably would
want a better interface than a tree control.  As an aside, having used
most of the Bible software offerings out there, I can say tree controls
are probably the most onerous interface possible unless you are completely 
clueless about a book.  (In other words, they're great for GenBooks, 
horrible for Bibles.  Again, any missionary who likes this interface 
because he doesn't remember where 1Samuel is in the Bible probably needs a 
long, long furlough.)

As for the system requirements target....  There's always OLB, OLBDOS, and 
various other programs that were current at the time their computers were 
new.


....just some thoughts.

> I'll check with Chris Little and gnu-legal. I would almost prefer to release
> LcdBible as public domain than GPL (to avoid GPL-virus issues), but will
> comply with The SWORD Project's expectations. Is it possible to release
> LcdBible as "dual license"?

If LcdBible uses Sword or any other GPLed code, it must be licensed under 
the GPL exclusively.  Code written by Stallman that we have incorporated 
means there's not even the option of permitting another license currently.

If LcdBible were written completely from scratch, you could do dual 
licensing as you saw fit.

> Also, my impression is that I have the option of retaining copyright
> rather than relinquishing copyright to CrossWire.

Yes, definitely.  CrossWire does not request copyright assignment for
anything other than code that goes into Sword.  None of the front-ends are
owned by CrossWire except (I assume) The SWORD Project for Windows
(BibleCS).

--Chris