[sword-devel] Announcing FireBible 0.5.1 - GPLed Firefox font-end

[Brian Fernandes]

Hey Guys,

The last time I wrote to this list about my Firefox front end, it was 
way back in November 07. It has been a long journey since with a ton of 
fundamental issues to deal with, but I believe I finally have something 
worth releasing.

I'm calling it FireBible (I know not really creative; another unrelated 
Firefox extension I write is called DataFox... :) )

You can get FireBible 0.5.1 here - http://thegoan.com/firebible

FireBible is based on JSword, since JSword is both cross platform and 
easy to integrate with Firefox. You need to download and install JSword 
separately, I have tested / developed this with JSword 1.0.7. FireBible 
should work with Firefox 1.5 - 3.0 (including all the 3.0 betas).

The installation process is probably a tad too complex for people not 
used to anything other than double click installers, especially because 
of the separate JSword download; but that makes the difference between a 
download 2.6MB or a mere 60KB which is how big the extension actually 
is. I'd like to make it simpler in the future, with perhaps an all 
inclusive download later.

I've tried to keep scope down by supporting only Bible text modules for 
now, but can expand to support all modules rather quickly, depending on 
feedback received. Since most of the fundamental issues have been dealt 
with, I should now be able to concentrate on feature additions.

FireBible does not have an interface for module management, nor does it 
have any display preferences yet, but these are the easier bits to 
handle. I did add search and indexing capabilities though, so you can 
search installed modules.

The site should explain everything. I would really appreciate any 
critique and suggestions you may have on everything ranging from the 
site and the installation procedure to the actual extension itself.

DM Smith, especially looking for critique from you; would this be the 
first non BibleDeskto use of JSword?

Best regards,
Brian.

P.S. Minor bandwidth shortages at my host are currently being attended 
to, if the site is not responding, please try again at a later time.