[sword-devel] Tagging verses and verse lists

[DM Smith]

Jon,

This is a great idea. I have added it to BibleDesktop's wish list: http://www.crosswire.org/bugs/browse/BD-115
If Sword will implement a sharable file format, I will get BD to read  
that.

Serving Christ together,
	DM

On Dec 2, 2007, at 8:36 AM, Jonathan Morgan wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I have a suggestion for a feature that I would consider very useful in
> Bible software.  This idea I originally characterised in terms of
> "tagging", but my brother said it sounded very much like verse lists.
> My personal view is that verse lists may be useful in implementing
> something like tagging, but the two are semantically different (for
> example, a verse list tends to imply an order, while tagging doesn't.
> Similarly, tagging would tend to be considered to apply to a verse
> that was tagged, while a verse list is just a list of verses.)
>
> I'll describe a couple of uses for this feature:
> 1. When studying a particular topic, verses that relate to the topic
> can be tagged with that topic, and then the knowledge that the verse
> is related to the topic is saved as part of the software.
> 2. When reading a particular passage, verses may be noticed that apply
> to different topics that the reader is interested in, and each one
> tagged with its own topic.
>
> There are quite a few pieces of Bible software that appear to have
> verse lists or a similar feature.  However, none that I have tried
> would appear to support both these cases well.  They appear to be
> oriented to working with a verse list, and typically they will be
> oriented to the current verse list.  If I want to perform use (2),
> this means that I have to (often tediously) change the current verse
> list, so that I can then add the verse to the verse list.
>
> So, based on this, my proposal is as follows:
> 1. Support for persistent, named verse lists is added to Sword [note
> that I use verse lists as the generic name for the concept, but I
> think the list should include passages].  I think it is important that
> this support is added to Sword, so that I can use my verse lists with
> any application.  I believe Sword already supports ListKeys and
> similar for things like search, but they are never stored anywhere.
> 2. Search is extended to include tags/verse lists (e.g. only search
> verses with tag, exclude verses with this tag, etc.)
> 3. It is possible to add and remove passages from a verse list, as
> well as creating and deleting verse lists.
> 4. It is possible to export verse lists as a list of references, or as
> the complete set of passages from a particular version (this may be a
> front end issue).  Being able to import existing verse lists would be
> nice too.  It might also be useful to compare and merge verse lists in
> various ways.
> 5. Verse lists are able to be created from other verse lists (for
> example, from a list of search results).
> 6. Front ends include support for verse lists and tagging.  Possible
> features include:
>    a. Offering an option to create verse lists or new tags
>    b. Tagging the selected verse or passage with a particular tag.
>    c. Managing a verse list.
>    d. Display all the passages in a verse list.  I would suggest that
> this is done however the front end typically displays search results,
> for consistency.
> 7. Adding tag information to the displayed verses as an option.
> Possible methods of display are:
>    a. The user elects to highlight or mark in some way verses with
> particular tags (like many do with physical Bibles).
>    b. Tags are displayed embedded in the text after the verse,
> similar to how tags are frequently used in other contexts.
>
> I think that 7b would be particularly useful for this feature, since
> it gives the user a visual indication of all the information that they
> have put into this system when they are using the application.
>
> It is unlikely that I would do much work on the front end side, but I
> can try and find time to add support for it to Sword if it is
> considered useful.
>
> Links to some information about verse lists in other applications:
> * Bible Reference Exporter
> <http://www.thechristadelphians.org/htm/bre/index.html>: This has been
> designed specifically for this.  Its main problems are that it is
> designed for creating one verse list at a time, and it doesn't support
> enough Bibles (the usual liability of DIY development, that Sword
> largely manages to avoid).
> * e-Sword has support for verse lists, but I find it fairly  
> cumbersome to use.
> * The Librarian page <http://www.brs-inc.com/bible/library.html>
> offers a reasonable summary of some of the advantages of verse lists.
> * SwordSearcher Verse List documentation
> <http://www.swordsearcher.com/help-v5/index.html?verse_list_bible_search_result.html 
> >
>
> Questions?  Comments?
>
> Jon
>
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