[sword-devel] image support and UI selection (Re: JSword and development progress)

[Karl Kleinpaste]

Barry Drake <b.drake at ntlworld.com> writes:
> Does the imagesampler module still work?  Answer: 
> perfectly under GnomeSword.

Yeah, I just tried it out, too.  Interestingly, it's a ThML module.
(Not that it matters; the tagging is trivial in either that or OSIS.)

> If we work towards putting the map tags in the NET module
> eventually, it will do no harm and maps will be available when
> supported by frontends.  All of the map-references occur in the
> notes, so they will need to be supported by the footnote window in
> any frontend that wants to make use of them.

The problem I perceive is that images tend to be *big*.  NET's
mapN.jpg files are the smallest of that set, all 1024 pixels wide.
The jpN.jpg are in the 1300+ range, and the otN.jpg are 2000-pixel
monsters.  Images that large make for a lot of mouse-scrolling within
small subwindows inside the main.  I don't know about anyone else, but
my use of GS' display devotes comparatively little space to subwindows
other than the main text, especially the previewer and dictionary (but
I give a decent amount of space to the commentary).  Considering that
my heaviest use of GS is on my laptop, with just a 1024x768 screen, I
wouldn't want to be constantly scrolling images, or seeing them
embedded within other text, like footnotes, overwhelming the text.
I'd want them outside the main window entirely.

I tried out imagesampler via GS' "open in dialog", to create a
separate window, independently resizable and bury-able from the rest
of GS' usual display, and that worked reasonably well.  But I don't
know if GS, or any other Sword tool, can link directly to an
externally-displayed image.

Then again, image content is rare and infrequently referenced.  For
me, keeping a separate module open, the way I just tried imagesampler,
would be the way I'd want to go for images all the time.  Once I know
what reference is needed (e.g. from NET's *map* references), just
selecting the maps window and picking the needed image is easy.

It seems to me as well that the frontends should be able to scale an
image within the bounding of the window in which they're displayed, so
that mouse-scrolling isn't needed at all.