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

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

Quoting Matthew Talbert <ransom1982 at gmail.com>:
>
> I am a programmer, but I shudder at the thought of digging through all
> of the engine code, plus various front-end code, just to determine how
> to encode a module. After this discussion, I am less convinced than
> ever that I should even attempt an OSIS module.
>

On the other hand, I am a programmer, but as a frontend (filter)  
developer I shudder at the thought of digging through all of the  
engine code and full OSIS/Thml/other documentation to determine how to  
write a filter to represent a module. The answer to this problem is  
the same than in module writer's case: good brief documentation of  
Sword OSIS conventions. Module developers should never be forced to  
read programming language source code. Programmers may be more able to  
read module code etc. but we all seem to have one problem in common:  
time. I don't have time for BibleTime, engine and modules. BibleTime  
is my preference at least ATM. Better documentation would help a lot.  
It's not too difficult to enhance OSIS or TEI etc. support but I just  
can't start thinking about TEI if I have to google and read dozens of  
pages guessing what's relevant and what's not. Or for OSIS, test  
dozens of modules from beginning to end and try to find if there are  
some features which are not supported. Good module support is very  
important to me and I can do the programming but I just can't find all  
use cases.

BTW, I have read the "official" OSIS documentation but it's far from  
perfect and many definitions are vague. Our Wiki documentation is a  
good start but can't be used for frontend development without other  
docs.

--Eeli Kaikkonen