[sword-devel] Chapter-centric browsing (was: iPhone frontend alpha screenshots)

[Greg Hellings]

On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 1:57 PM, Eeli Kaikkonen
<eekaikko at mail.student.oulu.fi> wrote:
> Jonathan Morgan wrote:
>
>> I do think that in general removing the arbitrary chapter limitation
>> would be a good thing, but these considerations and others could be
>> important to getting it right.
>>
>>
>
> Most modern translations have a passage structure. I have played with
> this idea: we could have a fixed rough passage division, handled by the
> Sword library or a frontend. When the user wants to see a chapter the
> frontend could load the chapter but also preceding and following context
> so that if the chapter breaks a passage the whole passage would still be
> shown. It could be something like this:
>
> Passage1: 2:5-3:4
> Passage2: 3:1-3:20
> Passage3: 3:20-4:2
> Passage4: 4:2-5:1
>
>  If user asks for ch.3 he gets 2:5-4:2. If he asks for ch.4 he gets
> 3:20-5:1. The frontend decides the visual details.
>
> Notice how the passages are not restricted by other passages. This is
> because it's easier to find a safe, large enough sequence for every
> verse/chapter. There's another reason, too. Different translations
> divide the passages differently. This way we would hurt those as little
> as possible when always choosing a larger, "safe" passage. Even if a
> translation's passage would be cut, the wanted passage would always be
> included.
>
> This requires some work, of course. The whole Bible would need the
> passage database. It should have professional quality (modeled in modern
> academic translations/editions).
>
> Pros:
> - works for all modules which use ch/v.
> - technically not too difficult to implement
> - fits well for the existing frontend styles, doesn't need any new UI
> techniques
> - no memory/speed overhead
> Cons:
> - may break the translation's own passage structure - one size must fit all
> - database needs work

Would it be easier to break on paragraph boundaries?  That would be
more natural - go back to the previous paragraph boundary if the
chapter doesn't begin on one, same with going to the end if there is
no end of paragraph at the end of a chapter, etc?

--Greg

>
> --Eeli Kaikkonen
>
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