[sword-devel] Releasing application under sword GNUpubliclicense

[Troy A. Griffitts]

Dear mmital,

I am happy you have not felt any reservations about using the GPL.  The
license has served our projects well over the years.  Thank you so much for
the contribution!  We all know how much time and emotion software takes to
develop!  More comments below...

>2) I see there are several projects listed at crosswire.org under the 
>umbrella of the sword project. Would it be possible to add this application
>to that ? I have no problems conforming to your rules. (I  am willing to 
>make whatever changes necessary)

We will very happily add your project to the list of sword applications on
our front page.  Would you like to wait until you have decided on your new
name (per your previous email about conflicting names with other software)?

Most of our applications have some distinction from our other software which
we point out so users have an idea why they would like to choose one product
over another.  Can you think of something that would make your application
stand out over our current windows software?  It could be as simple as the
programming GUI framework.  Our current main windows software uses Borland
tools.  If yours uses MSVC this would be a great distinction, so that if we
have volunteers who wish to help but only know MSVC, we can point them to
your project.  Obviously, end user distinctions you can think of would be
great, as well.


> Theoretically, all sword modules should 
>work with eBible. Currently I have only made available a few modules 
>available for download, since the copyright and distribution policies for 
>other modules was unclear to me. Under the umbrella of sword project, users
>of eBible will have access to ALL modules that the sword project has to 
>offer.

Yes, developing your software under the banner of CrossWire Bible Society
will save you from having to obtain your own permission to use some of our
modules.

Have you looked at adding InstallMgr support to your application?  This is
the code we've been chattering about which we have been trying to debug for
this next release of the engine.  It is a simple class interface which
allows you to have multiple module repositories and to query for new/updated
modules and will download and install those you select.  We have a
standalone application that we ship with BibleCS (our current windows
software).  You are welcome to bundle that with your application so your
users can download and install using this tool.  Other frontends have
integrated their own UI to the InstallMgr classes into their application.

As an added note, BibleCS has been fairly stagnant for quite some time.  If
there is any way we might merge our efforts to advance free windows Bible
software, it might be a blessing to everyone.  I understand code-bases and
dependent technologies are likely very different, and it is always nice to
give users a choice of software which allows them to study in different
ways, so having multiple packages which run on windows is a good thing, as
well.  We have at least 4, besides yours, that I know of!

Thank you again mmital for your heart to selflessly serve and for your
willingness share together in work for our Lord.  Looking forward to
laboring together!

  -Troy.