[sword-devel] OSIS sources? [Was: Re: Project “Free Scriptures” started]

[Peter von Kaehne]

On Mon, 2014-02-24 at 17:38 +0100, Matěj Cepl wrote:
> Although, the original message was IMHO completely trollish, there is
> one thing, where I would like to get a clarification.
> 
> On Sun, 2014-02-23 at 22:21 -0800, Chris Little wrote:
> > We're not an OSIS document repository. Making XML documents available 
> > for that content that we could share is not part of our mission. (When 
> > we are able to share and organizations acting in good faith request OSIS 
> > or otherwise formatted texts, we do share them. We've shared with other 
> > software projects, including both GPL and commercial projects, as well 
> > as with more typical document repository maintainers & Bible societies.)
> 
> That's a pity we are not an OSIS document repository (at least where we
> can). E.g., I believe that with the advent of av11n ALL Czech modules
> are in need of rebuilding (proper Czech v11n is almost certainly the
> German one, not KJV; I would like to investigate it, but I would need
> sources even for that), plus some of them are obsolete and should be
> removed (I am going to resend here the message I sent to David couple of
> weeks ago for which I have never received a reply). I would like to
> help? What should I do?

I think the basic decision to not publish OSIS for texts we do not
maintain is sound. I have disagreed with it in the past, but once I
realised the Chinese whisper like deterioration of texts by project
copying from project copying from project my views changed. 

In effect nothing ever which happened in manuscript diversions in times
of yonks, the stuff bible scholars fight over now, compares with the
sheer bizarre level of text deterioration we see for some/many of the
public domain texts floating about. And despite having probably one of
the most thorough systems of text checking and one of the most complex
systems of semantic markup we still regularly get fault reports here on
the list - this wrong, that missing in module X. Often enough it is a
problem in our own processes which we uncover, ie. a problem we _added_
to the text, which might have already problems of its own from the step
of paper to electron.

So, with this in mind, I am very glad that we at least do not contribute
to the general entropy but advise consistently people to go to the
actual sources. 

> If it is not possible to put OSIS documents somewhere (github?,
> gitorious? … there are so many places these days, where one can put a
> code repository), could we have at least module maintainers? The only
> module I have created (CzeCSP) has a proper git repository
> (http://luther.ceplovi.cz/git/czekms-csp_bible.git/) and I am willing to
> accept any bug reports I get for it. But for most modules we have in our
> repositories I don't see anybody who would be willing and able to do
> anything about them. There are some issues in Jira for Czech modules,
> which could be trivially fixed (and some issues which are not even
> failed yet), but without sources, we will loose some quality certainly
> (mod2osis is not officially supported and it is not guaranteed to be
> 100% faithful, is it?). Whom should I contact about those modules?

Couple of points here:

1) We do have a git installation on CrossWire which we plan(ned) to use
for module making inclusive the ability to reissue rapidly and in bulk.
The plan is sword-devel - about a 1 1/2 years or so ago. Not much has
happened with it as everyone involved became too busy with other things
I think the basic idea was very sound - a combination of git/gitosis,
use of githooks, make scripts and ability to "make" modules rapidly
again and again, allowing re-issue where either source or intermediate
OSIS remained unchanged but our toolset was upgraded. A frequent problem
is e.g. osis2mod bugs. 

2) The plan was to keep access to the repo on a need to know basis
(gitosis) to allow collaborative work on copyrighted texts. We can not
ever publish OSIS texts for copyrighted texts where we have no
permission to do so. Usually our permissions are to publish a module +/-
GoBible. 

The plan is there, the idea is approved, the git stuff is up, what is
missing are the scripts and the overall glue.

Peter

> 
> Blessings,
> 
> Matěj
> 
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