[sword-devel] frontend features, their applicability -- consistency?

[Karl Kleinpaste]

Nic Carter <niccarter at mac.com> writes:
> But perhaps this is the time for me to say I'm considering cutting
> support for the GenBook format? The iPhone has the kindle app, has a
> very cool CCEL app & is about to get the iBooks app (from Apple), so I
> can't see much point.

That would be unwise.  The availability of another application that does
book-reading does not account for the fact that _Sword resources_ are
what a user needs to read in PS, and that Sword resources have the
capability to cross-reference with others of their own kind.  I want to
be able to use my NETnote, see a Josephus reference, tap it, and have
the right Josephus section appear.  And any book with scripture
references ought to be able to get to PS' current Bible selection: I
want to read HodgeSysTheo, tap references, and get my current Bible to
show them.  Having a copy of Hodge's Systematic Theology for some
Kindle-equivalent software is not the same.

This aspect of feature parity with the full-size apps matters, and is
possible.  Many others are not (cf. anything multi-text), and can be
wisely cut.

> ps: I reckon that bookmarks sync between PS and a desktop would be a
> manual process (in that you need to hit a button to do it, rather than
> it all being automagic cloud-based syncing), so it would be something
> you could opt out of, for the persecuted country situation. &
> bookmarks might be something that happens between PS & MacSword, cause
> we can share all the same Obj-C code (says Nic, without talking it
> over with Manfred!). And is also a feature that would, of course, be
> part of the iPad version of PS... :)

Anything that ties PS too closely to another platform like MacSword
should probably be re-thought.  Your programming environment doesn't
matter to Joe Average, ever.

I have always envisioned bookmark sync as something done on user
request, never as something done automatically.

Anyhow, I fear the discussion is reaching far afield from my original
questions, which revolved around the question of consistent baseline
user experience and what we ought to require (in some fuzzy sense) of
Sword app teams' development.  Questions about support of genbooks in PS
are apropos, of course, but I'd rather stay closer to the issue at hand.

What does Joe Average expect from any app labeled "The Sword Project"?