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

[DM Smith]

On Mar 30, 2008, at 6:55 AM, Brian Fernandes wrote:

> 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.

This may not be the first non-BD use of JSword, but it is the coolest.  
Perhaps, I should start a "sightings" page in the wiki. Or feel free  
to do so for yourself.

I'm not able to get it to work on my Mac Mini. When I click on "Select  
Bible" nothing happens. Sword modules are located at "~/Library/ 
Application Support/Sword" for both BD and MacSword. (Note the space  
in the path). Java is /usr/bin/java and is a link to Java 1.4.2. Apple  
includes a way to change this link to point to the "current" Java. I  
did not try Java 5.

On Fedora 8, (a Linux distribution) I couldn't get it to work. On  
clicking on Bibles, I get the spinning busy indicator. And it won't  
come back. Clicking on it again pops up a dialog box letting me know  
it is busy. And then the spinning goes away. However, it is still busy  
and clicking again gets the same dialog box. At first, I thought it  
was due to my having all the Bibles installed. But when I move .sword  
out of the way, I still got the busy situation.

I have installed gcj, Sun's Java 1.4, Sun's Java 5, Sun's Java 6 and  
IcedTea Java 7. Both gcj and IcedTea were installed via yum from  
Fedora. The various Sun's Java were installed as outlined in http://www.crosswire.org/jsword/linuxjava.html 
.. I use /usr/sbin/alternatives to switch between them. I tried 1.4.2,  
5, 6 and IcedTea.

But on WinXP, it looks great.

Feedback:
The table used to show notes and text should be padded between the  
columns.
The URL showing search results is unreadable because of all the  
escaping. If you used the osisRef form, it would be more readable.
When titling the window for a search result, it might be better to  
show a variation of search text rather than the long reference. Or  
truncate the reference.
On Linux, with GnomeSword installed, there may be a bit of tug-of-war  
for the bible:// protocol.

I'm looking forward to see what you have next!

In Him,
	DM