[sword-devel] Arabic Bible

[Chris Little]

Peter von Kaehne wrote:
> Dear Chris,
> 
> Thanks for putting the AraSVD with vowels already up in Beta.
> 
> One remark - could you please put it up as an extra module and not
> simply as an updated/improved version of the old module we had?

We can do that, but...

> 2 reasons:
> 
> 1) Not everyone likes vocalisations - some Arabic readers think they are
> a bit baby-ish. For some they are crucially important. So we should
> offer choice.

This is probably better handled via a change plus rename to the existing 
UTF8HebrewPoints filter. We can extend it to strip all vocalization from 
Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and others (as we become aware of them and 
support content in them). We might call the new filter something like 
UTF8AbjadVocalization.

Even those Arabic readers who prefer not to see vocalization would 
likely prefer the paragraphing provided by the new source over the 
unparagraphed PD version.

> 2) The old version is public domain - this one is more restricted. A
> public domain version has significant advantages for third party
> distributers.

Which sorts of 3rd party distributers do you mean?

I think 3rd parties who are taking our content on CD (for example) to 
distribute in Sword format shouldn't worry about the licensing. I think 
that's within the scope of what Arabic Bible Outreach Ministries is 
giving permission for.

Third parties who want to use our content to derive content in other 
formats shouldn't. We don't encourage that. We've never encouraged that. 
Those parties should just grab the PD version from Unbound Bible like we 
did. It's more reliable than what you can get out of Sword.

--Chris