[sword-devel] usfm to osis converter...

[Peter Von Kaehne]

> Von: "Healing Advisor" <healingadvisor at gmx.com>

> On 31/07/15 16:09, Ryan wrote:
> 
> > This would be why I haven't done anything with xrefs. I am sure I don't
> > possess the knowledge required to handle them properly. :)
> 
> In the original, they don't quite work properly. 

They worked never anywhere. The reason is that the xref content is not ever standardised and needs parsing from very different and variable starting points.

The current approach with all the scripts was/is to leave them untouched and then use a second script which relies on the Sword library to fix the xrefs.

I have aa very messy looking script in sword-tools/modules/crossreferences which deals with xrefs and produces valid OSIS. It needs always finetuning for each individual module and is a pain in the neck - but nothing better exists and to be honest, nothing better will likely exist as the variability is a given.

"Matthew 5:3, John 7:1" in English would be expressed as "Mattheus 5,3; Johannes 7,1" in German. Etc. 

Standardised translations into languages with no history of previous Bible publishing - i.e. much of Wycliffe's work - tend to be straightforward as at least the punctuation is always the same + carries the same meaning, but languages with a long history of Bible publication and translation will have invariably their very own ways of deploying dots, commas, colons, hyphens and the like and make very individually and variably sense of these.

Peter