[sword-devel] I am a developer

[Derek Viljoen]

Hello,
I'm writing to offer (a little) help with the development process of
GnomeSword.  

Here's what you've asked for:

Spiritual background (briefly):
I've been saved since I was 10.  My father is a retired Pastor/School
Teacher.  I'm a deacon in my church (Fellowship Alliance Chapel,
Medford, NJ).  (Is that too brief?)

Skills and experience:

I'm a professional programmer, currently working for an R&D company
(Sarnoff Corporation, Princeton, NJ).  I've been working in the industry
for about 13 years.

Linux related:

Yes.  Lots and for a long time.  I go back to the Slackware install from
diskette days on a 486. 

Windows:

Yes.  I go way back to TurboPascal/TurboBasic on DOS (Ctrl-K, Ctrl-D!). 
I've done lots of cross-platform stuff as well.  I really don't enjoy
Windows coding as much as Linux though.  

Programming tools:

C, C++, Java, SQL, x86 asm, CORBA, (D)COM, MFC, MSVC 4.x through .NET,
gdb, ddd, SNavigator, Purify, CVS, (g)vi(m), (ba)sh, Linux kernel
development (device drivers, and modules), multi-threading, TCP/IP, SNA,
SNMP, ... shall I stop now?

Non-techie skills (testing, documentation, etc.)

I have no non-techie skills, as my wife will attest.

How much SWORD software experience and how recent:

I've been using it for a couple of years, on and off.  On the Windows
side I've gotten used to OnlineBible.  I've been using that one since
DOS days.  I've actually written my own bible study software for
Windows, although I gave up on it because my preferred translation is
NASB and Lockman Foundation gave me such grief getting a license to sell
it.  It was very much like a scaled down version of GnomeSword, which is
what originally drew me to it.

What might interest you? 

One feature I had that I really liked on my app was a VERY easy to use
cross-reference system.  You could right-click and select a verse for
cross referencing.  You then went to another verse and pasted it as a
reference.  You could then just right click and get a child popup menu
listing all of the cross references to a verse.

Although, I have a problem, which may not be a real bug, but I can't get
the personal module to save any of my text.  I'm sure its a
configuration issue.  If not, I'd love to get that feature working for
you.  I'd really use it.  I used it a lot in OnlineBible.  Also, maybe a
utility to convert my OnlineBible notes to sword.

Problems/shortcomings you've observed with The SWORD Project software
you might be willing to work:

(see above)

Ideas for improvements:

Good user documentation, and better online support docs.

Time availability:

Hit and miss.  I really don't have a lot of free time, but what I have
I'll give.  (a couple of hours a week perhaps?)


-- 
Derek Viljoen <dviljoen@comcast.net>