[sword-devel] Radically simpler Bible software: more feasible to internationalize (looking for volunteers)

[Lynn Allan]

Hi members of sword-devel:

Something that hadn't occurred to me, but seems to be a point in favor of
radically simpler Bible software: It should be more feasible to
internationalize.

I've exchanged eMails with the Rev. Michael Paul Johnson, the translator
(author?) of the WEB (World English Bible). In other writing, he has
stressed something I found interesting. He is burdened by the lack of Bibles
for non-English speaking people groups. God in His providence has blessed us
in the English speaking nations with a rich choice of excellent Bibles
(including the WEB ... thanks mpj :-).

<alert ... sarcasm meter pegged and blantant digression>
In fact, our fallen nature causes there to be unproductive and heated
arguments about the merits of one vs the others. Gosh, I'm sure that it
looks great to the nonbelievers out there as they listen to members of the
visible church debating whether it is the KJV or the NIV that is Satanic. I
thank God for both. I look forward to meeting people who were killed
defending the KJV. Similarily, I want to express my thanks to the many
brilliant translators who participated on the NIV team. I have to believe
that it was more than just a job to put food on the table.
<nuff said ... all clear>

I believe Troy G pointed out that the Bible is so powerful that even a
relatively inadequate translation can penetrate the heart of a person whom
the Holy Spirit is working on. (Or someone else on this list, or maybe mpj,
but it has the wisdom of something that our very own, much appreciated Troy
G. would point out.)

My wife and I have been impressed by how God has used the NIrV to clarify
difficult verses in Romans, and it is intentionally written at a middle
school reading level. That's powerful (leaving aside what that says about my
lack of intellect :-)

Back to the point about facilitating internationalization: As the LcdBible
now stands, it would be nearly trivial to internationalize. There are 27
books of the New Testament, and the words "Search Phrase". That's it. 29 wor
ds. Probably 15 minutes with Google?

As a person who took two years in Spanish over 35 years ago, I suspect I
could prepare a Spanish version of the LcdBible software in much less than a
day. As a person who knows no more than four words of French, I would
suspect it would also take less than a day for me to prepare a French
version of the LcdBible software.  In fact, I will proceed to tackle this.
I've got lessons to prepare for this evening, so I can't start today.
Tomorrow morning, I will commence translating the LcdBible to Spanish and
French. I will have a red face if I haven't got these working by COB (Close
Of Business) on Friday.

I took a look at BibleCs and the FreeLSG (French?) with this in mind. Sure,
the Bible text shows up in the "viewer" in French, but everything else on
the page is in English. Internationalization would involve hundreds, even
thousands of words to be dealt with.Quick, what is "Transliteration" in
French? I don't find it obvious what this function does, so even if I was a
French person who spoke decent English, I would have to look at the Help
information about "Transliteration". This Help information, of course, would
have to be in French to be meaningful: hundreds more words to translate.

Who among The SWORD Project's BibleCS volunteers has the
time/talent/interest to do this?  At some point, our French end-user would
throw up their hands in defeat/frustration if everything besides the Bible
text was in English. (Granted, you wouldn't have to translate each and every
word used by the BibleCS software to be useful. A subset would suffice to
provide very basic functionality.  Also, I may be unaware of an
internationalized version of the BibleCS software itself.)

Here's a link to the LcdBible software, with a prayer that some people
reading this might be led to help translate. (It is at or near Beta
maturity, but has some rough edges and lacks documentation. I claim it does
a very few things reasonably well. YMMV) Costas, how about contributing to a
Greek version of the LcdBible software?
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/lcdbible/LcdBibleSetup_0_60b.exe?download

Here's a link to the Requirements and Design document that further discusses
the LcdBible software (feedback appreciated):
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/lcdbible/LcdBibleReqDesign.doc

All I need is:
Search Phrase = ???
Matthew = ???
Mark = ???
Luke = ???
John = ???
etc.

<Alert ... another aside>
Costas has put together what I believe to be an excellent Bible freeware
package. I enthusiastically encourage you to look at his site and download
his 1.1 version. The LcdBible software has benefited from observing some
things he has done with "The Word". Here are some links:
http://www.theword.gr/en/
http://www.theword.gr/bin/theword-en-1.1-full.exe

My 2 alt-155 worth, and
Sharing the reason for the season,
http://learningcards.eeworks.org/EeCard01.html

Lynn l.allan@att.net