[sword-devel] Creating a module of the Companion Bible

[DM Smith]

Greg Perry wrote:
> DM Smith wrote:
>   
>>> I am currently
>>> working with another developer on transcribing E.W. Bullinger's
>>> Companion Bible into the OSIS XML format.
>>>       
>> Fantastic. And is the material free of any copyright or have you  
>> obtained permission from the copyright holder? Since the work was  
>> originally released in 1898 it certainly may be old enough to be free  
>> of copyrights. Current publishers often claim copyrights for very old  
>> works and can enforce them by making minor alterations in the text to  
>> show it is their material.
>>     
>
> Yes we have already spoken with the president of Kregel (the only 
> Companion Bible publisher), he told us the entire work was in the public 
> domain and his company made no claim to any type of copyright or 
> intellectual property ownership.  As it was published in the early 
> 1900s, there are no electronic versions of the Companion Bible - only 
> the original printing plates which Kregel owns.  We are going to 
> transcribe it electronically and re-release it into the public domain as 
> well.
>
>   
>>> The Companion Bible is the
>>> 1611 KJV, and includes the Massorah as well as a verse by verse
>>> commentary by Bullinger.
>>>       
>> My guess is that it is a 1769 KJV. The 1611 version is very  
>> distinctive. You can see it here: http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/ 
>> sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?TextID=kjbible
>>
>> For example the text of Gen 1.1-2 reads:
>> IN the beginning God created the heauen, and the Earth.
>> 2 And the earth was without forme, and voyd; and darkeneffe [was]  
>> vpon the deepe: and the Spirit of God mooued vpon the face of the  
>> waters.
>>     
>
>  From the other developer on the 1611 vs. 1769 KJV issue:
>
> "It doesn't look like Sword has the 1611 KJV as a module.  They have the
> 1769 KJV and the RKJV and one or two other specialties.
>
> The 1611 KJV is probably available all over the place.  Here is one in
> OSIS:  http://ebible.org/kjv/kjvosis.zip
> there's several other 1611 KJVs at  http://ebible.org/kjv/indexbar.htm
> like XML, HTML, etc.
>
>   

I have examined a lot of these so called 1611 versions and they all come 
from the same original source created by/for Bible Foundation (bf.org).

I think that the confusion is that the KJV was "authorized" and 
published in 1611. Immediately it underwent changes. The first which 
were to fix publication errors. In 1769, a major revision was done to 
make the spelling consistent and modern and to change the typesetting so 
that it was consistent as well. This is the version that most people 
call the 1611 version. This is the version of the early Scofield Study 
Bible and early Thompson Chain reference. Today it is very difficult to 
find a true 1769 version in print. Even the recent Scofield and Thompson 
Chain are different. It seems that publishers seem free to make changes 
as they see fit.

The link I gave is to a photocopy of an original, perhaps first edition 
of the 1611. To my knowledge there is an NT representation of this that 
anyone can get to on the web, but it is licensed unfavorably for our 
use. And there is a fee based edition of it.

>> 2) Does Sword support these features?
>> 	The versification of the KJV is fully supported by Sword.
>> 	Alternate versifications are currently being worked.
>> 	There is support for introductory material.
>> 		For a book this is chapter 0, verse 0.
>> 		For a chapter it is verse 0.
>> 		Not sure what it is for a testament or the bible as a whole.
>> 		Very few Sword applications support introductory material.
>> 	To my knowledge there is not support for appendices.
>> 	The support for images is limited. And exposed by very few front ends.
>>     
>
> Ok so any idea which front ends support graphical imagery?  We are doing 
> everything on the Linux platform right now, alternating between 
> Gnomesword and BibleTime.
>   
BibleDesktop also runs on Linux and as a developer of that, I would say 
that we will look at it when the first instance is ready to be tested. 
There are already other things that we don't do that are needed right 
now that the current needs take precedence over the future. However, it 
should not be too difficult nor take too much time.

If you want to know about BibleTime and GnomeSword, contact those 
developers. It may suffice to post here. I find that when a post has 
many questions about which frontends do what that it does not get 
adequate response.

>   
>> The big question is how an appendix would be presented to the user so  
>> that the user could find it.
>>     
>
> Maybe just labeled as a preface (or appendix) and accessible via the 
> drop down menu?
>   

This would require a change to the Sword API as well as all the 
frontends. My guess is that once the module is built that volunteers 
that have an interest in getting the rest of it to work will pitch in. 
But it may not be uniform across the board. The important thing would be 
that if a feature were not present that the rest would behave well.