[sword-devel] Change to Synodal verse system

[John Austin]

The xulSword program used primarily in Russia and the CIS has been
relying on Sword's own built in v11n capability since shortly after
1.6.1 was released. From that time a number of IBT texts have already
been released which use the "Synodal" verse system, including Russian
modules, Kazakh, Crimean Tatar, Turkmen modules, Khakass, and a couple
others,  Actually, there are no IBT texts or other xulSword related
texts which use the SynodalP v11n- they all use either Synodal, KJV,
or the now deprecated EASTERN v11n which some pre-sword-1.6.1 modules
had used (as these texts are rev'd, EASTERN modules become Synodal, so
xulSword still handles both at this point). Please see further
comments below:

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 8:01 PM, Troy A. Griffitts <scribe at crosswire.org> wrote:
> On 01/08/11 14:55, Chris Little wrote:
>> We added the SynodalP v11n specifically to support IBT's texts, and
>> that's probably as much as we can do to accommodate these texts.
>
> OK, to be sure I understand the summary of the issue:
>
> IBT has legacy Russian Bibles that use v11n "P"
> We have Russian Bibles the use v11n "Synodal"
> We have a special v11n "SynodalP" which lets our current software work
> with IBT's legacy Russian Bibles.
> IBT is redoing their modules to use our newer v11n scheme.
>
> If this is correct, I think we have almost what David is suggesting.
>
> We have 2 Synodal v11n systems supported.
>
> The current situation then is this, IF the IBT modules specify "Synodal"
> in their .conf file (which they probably do):
>
> Current software written to support these modules (using SWORD 1.6.1 or
> the custom fork of SWORD from IBT) will still work as expected, but will
> not work with newer Russian Bibles which use our "Synodal" v11n.
>
> This is fine, as we probably specify MinimumVersion=1.6.2 in all modules
> which use our "Synodal" v11n system.  This means any frontends which are
> compiled with 1.6.1 or previous will not show these modules available
> for install and thus not supported-- this is true: they aren't supported
> with this software-- there was not v11n in existence at the time which
> included their extra verse in Ps.  An upgrade of software is necessary
> for these people to see our new modules with our new versification.  If
> they can see new Bibles, then they can see new software too.

Unfortunately, the Synodal texts I mentioned above have already been
released for use with sword-1.6.1, so they are already in the wild.
These modules have Psalms 114:9 appended to 114:8, which is not a
significant problem.

>
> Fine. But...
>
> the caveat is that these older modules which specify "Synodal" will not
> be usable in newer software.
>
> So, do we have a problem?
>
> We've already mentioned that IBT is migrating all their modules to our
> "Synodal" v11n system.  Even if they don't rework the modules, they can
> re-release the same modules with a .conf change to: Versification=SynodalP

Several of IBT's already released modules use "Synodal" and there will
be revisions and new modules each year which also use "Synodal"- hence
this poses the challenge.

>
> Here's the only situation to consider:
>
> Will there be a user with NEWER software and access to only OLDER IBT
> modules?
>
> All other scenarios are covered.
>
> If someone decides this scenario is important to handle, they can:
>
> If a newer frontend wishes to support legacy IBT modules, then they can
> simply say:
>
> If Module v11n == "Synodal" AND Module MinimumVersion < 1.6.2
> Module v11n = "SynodalP"

Yes, this could work for IBT's modules if SynodalP is reworked to
actually be Synodal minus Psalms 114:9, however this is currently not
the case. But, there are no IBT modules which use SynodalP, and if the
same is true for other module developers (as seems to be the case),
then reworking it this way might be a real possibility. In such a
case, as far as IBT is concerned, SynodalP could then be dropped from
the cannon list at the appropriate time in the future.

Originally, IBT was interested in a SynodalP which was identical to
"Synodal" in every way, but which lacked the many non-canonical books,
chapters, and verses according to the Protestant tradition. However,
IBT has rather taken the approach of just filling and linking the
non-canonical material to blank space, which the front end then deals
with as necessary.

Thanks,
John