[sword-devel] OSIS:What is the future? Who is using it now?

[Kahunapule Michael Johnson]

Tom Stout wrote:
> Hello I just invested several days formatting a Bible Text to use with
> e-sword.  Let's just say it was an experience that drew me closer to
> the Lord in terms of patience and perseverance. :)
>
> The translation is a South American Indian language called Guarani.
> And before I dedicate more time to format this text into the OSIS
> schema, could you tell me what Bible Programs are currently using this
> format and what is the future of this format for Bible programs.
The future is hard to predict. Currently, OSIS (or rather a subset of
OSIS) is used by The Sword Project as one option for Scripture text
import. An improper subset of OSIS is being considered for use by a
couple of programs within SIL, in parallel with USFM. I wrote a program
that generates OSIS from GBF, but it should probably be either updated
after the next round of changes to OSIS get officially published. That
is something I don't see much benefit in doing, though, so it is pretty
low on the priority list. I think STEP may be in wider use than OSIS,
but STEP seems to have a lack of a steering committee at the moment, and
the mirror of the STEP information that was on crosswire.org seems to
have disappeared.

Since you enjoy growing in patience and perseverance so much, OSIS may
be just right for you... just don't get mad if you find that OSIS isn't
widely supported after you encode a Bible in it, and that nobody
supports all features of the full OSIS specification in OSIS readers.

Things may look different tomorrow...