[sword-devel] Linked verses ........

[DM Smith]

Barry Drake wrote:
> Hi there ...........
>
> I've been checking out the Linux frontends alongside BibleCS for various 
> features.  I note that GnomeSword and BibleDesktop do not handle 'linked 
> verses' properly.  All the other frontends seem to work OK with these.  
> I mention this, because I am at present negotiating with the copyright 
> holder for the JB Phillips New Testament.  If this is successful, we 
> will be adding a version which makes heavy use of linked verses. 
>
>   
IIRC, linking creates a block of verses and stores it as the content of 
the first verse in the block but then for all the subsequent verses, it 
has them point to the same place as the first verse.

BibleDesktop does not handle it yet, but it does need to. IIRC, BD shows 
the entire block for each verse, with a verse number before it.

The big question for me is what should the "search" behavior be? 
Currently, we search for individual verses. Linking verses breaks the 
notion of individual verses as there is no boundary. BibleDesktop has 
capabilities to search for words in one verse near words in another.

If there are truly no verse boundaries, then linking is the right thing 
to do. But if it is merely a display issue, then I think that there 
needs to be another mechanism.

For example, The Message Bible that I have does not have verse numbers 
at all. I seem to recall seeing a Message Bible with verse numbers. If 
we were ever to get The Message Bible (which I'd love) I think that we'd 
want the verses to be stored and searchable individually but have the 
verse numbers optionally displayed.

With JB Phillips, I think it is similar in that it is a display issue 
that some verse numbers not display.