[sword-devel] Taming Wild Threads (was: Getting stuff done (Re: External links))

[Matthew Talbert]

> This is an open source project. If you have an itch, it's your own
> responsibility to scratch it. If you don't know how to do something,
> it's your own responsibility to learn how.
>
> When I started working on Sword, we didn't have any general purpose
> import tools. We didn't have documentation explaining the Sword module
> format. We didn't have example importable documents. And I had only a
> modicum of experience in programming--and far too much of that was in VB.
>
> But I wanted to be able to add more content than Sword had available at
> the time, so I teased out the module format from the API's drivers and
> eventually wrote working importers that became vpl2mod. And I wanted to
> provide a more general and robust input method and one that could handle
> non-Bible texts, so I developed the imp2* tools and eventually thml2gbs,
> which would become xml2gbs. Since then, Troy has written osis2mod and DM
> has written tei2mod. So now it's easier to create content for Sword than
> it has ever been.
>
> It's not my point that everyone who wants to work on Sword should
> already know everything they need to know to do that work. My point is
> that if you don't know something, it's your own responsibility to figure
>  out how to learn it.
>
> That can include digging through source code, asking questions through
> the mailing list, IRC, or privately, searching mailing list archives,
> reading that documentation that does exist, etc.
>

I just asked for help in the form of a few sample entries, and you
just turned me down. not only that but you promised to post various
complete modules with varying degrees of conformance to whatever the
current standards are. You have spent more time replying to this than
it would have taken to create some examples, and creating examples
would imo save you time. Because you are having trouble with people
sending you modules that don't work, I'm trying to help you understand
how you could save yourself some frustration. Instead of accepting
this advice and the other good advice you have been given to smooth
out this process, you are determined to do things your way. I have no
desire to work with someone like that.

Matthew