[sword-devel] [osis-editors] Re: The death of OSIS?

[JH]

At 06:47 PM 8/12/2004, Kahunapule Michael P. Johnson wrote:
>I'm not talking about guaranteeing against bad software implementations. 
>I'm talking about a standard that always works when properly implemented.

I think that is an important point. I have some thoughts along related lines.

I have thought it a good thing that The Sword Project has tried to preserve 
works as they were published by their authors. People have sent in 
suggestions for "corrections" to works, and have been denied because the 
"corrections" would be changes from the original works. I don't think that 
intent has been let go of, but it seems to be getting slippery. As a user I 
would want to be able to see your work as you intended, with no text 
changes, not even to quote marks. Quote marks may not be in the original 
Bible texts, but if I want to see your translation as you intended I need 
to see the marks where you put them.

As a user, I also like options, and I even like options that give me 
enhancements to texts that the authors may never have thought of. A toggle 
here and a toggle there and you may not know your own text, but the code 
for it should still remain able to deliver a true copy.

I think it is important that a text module, whatever the markup, should 
only be distributed in a way that a user with software that properly 
implements the standards can see the text true to the original work. (That 
includes original translations). I don't think it is reasonable to fault 
the markup standard for features that may or may not be implemented in 
various software programs. Markup for quotes may allow a search for text 
that is only found in a quote by a speaker in one program or it may provide 
an optional display of the text in another.

In short, let the user see a text as the author intended when the user 
wants it that way, and as a default, and let the user also have features 
that let him use the text the way he wants, so long as the user is not 
encouraged to distribute copies that violate IP.

Jerry