[sword-devel] Website: "help" direction + improved blurbs

[Peter von Kaehne]

Ben Morgan wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 3:16 AM, Peter von Kaehne <refdoc at gmx.net> wrote:
>>  So, please do send me something - otherwise I might make it all up 
>>  and then let it all rot for another 5 years... ;-)

> I'm not sure whether the winking smile applies to the 5 years,

yes. that is what I winked at. If people do not send me something
sensible then I will make it up and let it rot. You did, so I won't make
things up. But your are the first and so far only one.

BTW Rotting - that might happen anyway and hence I would like to avoid
words like "New" etc. simply because we all have more interesting things
to do. I will hammer away at the site until I have it in some sensible
shape, but I really would want to have the static stuff relatively low
maintenance.

>> really important is the number of GUI translations your applications have.

> The number of GUI translations does not make a particular Bible program
> either good or bad. 

No one said this and if you read it this way, I am sorry.

> This is a very bad way to rate how good a program is.

Only bad if it is the _only_ way. It is a good thing to have translated
programmes, it is indeed something BibleCS (however horrible it is)
excels, but when you look at most other projects within Sword -
translation comes up soon for most.

> The primary language of use, no matter how many translations you put in, is
> likely to be English. 

That is so wrong, I cannot get my head around it, Ben. Seriously. The
primary language of use is that which is offered for longest, which in
turn is usually the language of the main programmer. Which happens to be
English here. But the need is massive in many other languages. And yes,
this is a thing CrossWire does fantastically well - basically all our
software is easily translatable and that is a brilliant feature. It is a
feature of most open source programming and we should be proud about it.

> I'm just wondering whether this is harped on in SWORD
> because it is the only thing done better than any other application. Sorry
> if that sounds harsh.

I am not sure what you mean here about 'harping on'. I am not going to
discuss BibleCS here, my opinion on that is not much different to those
of many others, but its translations are a great feature, definitely.

> And no, I'm not against i18n - I think it is a good thing. That is why I
> added it to BPBible 0.4. But it is not the "main" feature of crosswire
> products.

It is one of the really important features. At no stage have I said
"main", but in between OS and GUI language the choice of options is
rapidly narrowed down for many users - unless English is at first
language level or near to that.

> How about this for a blurb for BPBible (I'm open to different suggestions,
> but this was what Jon and I came up with quickly):

> BPBible is an exciting new piece of Bible software which empowers the user.
> Flexible and user friendly, with a wide variety of available Bibles,
> dictionaries, commentaries, and other books, it could easily become your
> first point of call for Bible Study. It has features usually found only in
> expensive commercial software, such as a word proximity based cross-verse
> search, and is available in Vietnamese and English. It works well under both
> Windows and Linux, and is also an official PortableApp.

All fine IMO but the "exciting new" - simply to avoid visible bitrot. I
do not want to make CW website maintenance my main job. everyone's
application was once exciting and new, but after a few months that
changes. I am looking into making this bit  of the website somehow more
accessible to all people with ssh accounts to increase the likelihood of
remaining up to date, but still - static language is best for a project
which does not excel at promoting itself.

> God Bless,
> Ben

And you too!

Peter

> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Multitudes, multitudes,
>    in the valley of decision!
> For the day of the LORD is near
>    in the valley of decision.
> 
> Giôên 3:14 (ESV)
> 
> 
> 
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