[sword-devel] JavaScript & SWORD modules

[Stephan]

Hi Greg,

> My purpose was to strip away that layer and just show that there is not
> a need, from the desires I have seen on this list so far, for a pure
> JavaScript implementation. Not that it can't be done or that people will
> fight you on it if you really want to put in that level of effort. I
> only wanted to demonstrate that the results can also be acquired through
> JSON which is so native to JavaScript and then we JavaScript developers
> can do what we do best: focus on the front-end presentation of the UI
> and the rendering of the material. Why tackle more of the stack than is
> necessary? If you can stand on the shoulders of 20 years of development
> effort that's gone into Sword (and I don't know how much, but plenty
> that's gone into JSword) to build your utility, why wouldn't you? That's
> what Xiphos, BibleTime, BPBible, BibleCS, xulsword, PocketSword, Bishop,
> AndBible, the web study tool, numerous helper scripts written in Perl
> and Python, Bible Desktop, Eloquent/MacSword, and still yet others have
> all opted for. All of them, and more, rely on only two implementations
> of the Sword engine because the shared effort provides these people the
> ability to value-add, rather than toil away fixing all the bugs and
> reverse engineering the file structure.

I don't want to be offensiv, just want to share my efforts. I really 
would prefer a way not to write everything from scratch and you're 
right, there are limitations in a pure JS implementation. That's the 
reason why I observe several other ideas like the nodejs things. On the 
other side I'm still excited what is possible in pure client-side JS.

One of the main reasons, why I've started swordjs was FirefoxOS. They 
don't allow native plugins. The sword project is a very great and I 
respect all the efforts that went into this library. Someone in this 
list suggested to make phonegap plugins and I think that is a very good 
idea, because you can use the native lib offline and have a JS-frontend 
on the other side. But I don't have an android/iOS device and so my 
motivation isn't that high to start this, although it would be a great 
project.

BibleZ HD (a webOS app) has a native plugin and it was great to rely on 
such a good library like libsword. From today's perspective using the 
native lib directly or through bindings/plugins would be the best way.

As I've said, FxOS was one of the main reason. Because I use it as my 
second phone, I want to have offline access a bible, so there is a big 
personal motivation, too ;) Cause I like to develop things in 
Javascript, swordjs is a good thing (for me) to see, what you can do in 
pure clinet-side Javascript.

Blessings,
Stephan

PS: BTW, if you're looking for a good cross-platform app framework, take 
a look at enyojs.com ;)