[sword-devel] Modules, Tracker - some remarks

Mon Dec 3 09:14:46 MST 2018

This has been stated on numerous occasions.

CrossWire as a Society does not maintain the authoritative source text for modules except for very few cases, namely the KJV & KJVA modules.

Individual volunteers may indeed have [had] access to working copies of source texts for some modules as part of past or ongoing work in progress.

However, when such module issues were reported, this is generally because the reporting was done in the role of a user making observations from module testing or analysis -  rather than as a module developer and/or source text collaborator.

That a certain volunteer went AWOL (having left CrossWire and in effect cut himself off from further contact) this simply means that his knowledge, skills, ad hoc working scripts, customised software tools and file resources are no longer available to other volunteers. The trail went cold. We simply have to begin again from scratch on these issues.

Now of course, there are volunteers such as myself and several others that are active in source text development collaboration with third parties.
This enables us to provide a benefit to those not directly involved in Bible translation activities in the various well-established Bible agencies and societies.
i.e. Because such people are often using something other than ParaTExt (or Bibledit) to maintain their source text.
We have various software skills and some tools that can assist such providers get their source text into a format (USFM & OSIS)
that is more amenable for electronic publishing in forms suitable for Bible software in general and including SWORD modules for distribution by CrossWire.

For the present "modules team", in projects that are likely to go through more than one iteration, every effort is being made to retain copies of source text files.
But keeping a working copy is not the same as maintaining an authoritative source. We're back to ownership, provenance and version control matters.

Generally, for copyrighted works, these should be kept in a private repository, and only shared with others where collaboration is essential.
Even so, that still leaves a lot of collaboration work where the files for work in progress are probably stored only on the individual volunteer's computer rather than in accessible cloud services such as GitHub or GitLab, etc.

Best regards,

David

Sent with [ProtonMail](https://protonmail.com) Secure Email.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Monday, 3 December 2018 15:01, Cyrille <lafricain79 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Le 03/12/2018 à 14:45, David Haslam a écrit :
>
>> Posting comments on multiple issues that are several years old that simply ask questions like "Do you have the source?" don't get us anywhere forward soon.
>> They can even become a distraction in the originator's email notifications.
>
> Ok I understand, but when you (or the team) build the modules you had some source no? Where are this sources? Didn't you keep the osis files or usfm file when you had it? Just CPDV as example. I would like to be sure nobody keeps usfm or osis file before working on it.
>
>> Some of these old issues were originally added by me as long ago as 2011 when CrossWire still had someone responsible for building the original modules.
>> They were added on the assumption that this person would have known the module history and was in a position to do all the necessary work.
>>
>> That he went AWOL and these issues are still open essentially means that to make any progress now, someone will need to champion each module, do the research, find the latest source text, do the conversion to OSIS, rebuild and test the module, and check that the issue is then fixed, before submitting to the Modules Team.
>>
>> I will not be adding replies to new comments unless I have new information to hand that was unavailable when each issue were created.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> David
>>
>> Sent with [ProtonMail](https://protonmail.com) Secure Email.
>>
>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>> On Sunday, 2 December 2018 19:21, Cyrille [<lafricain79 at gmail.com>](mailto:lafricain79 at gmail.com) wrote:
>>
>>> Please Peter, can you post even if you don't have the source? It will be easier, because I post on multiples issues, I don't remember exactly which...
>>>
>>> Le 02/12/2018 à 18:54, DM Smith a écrit :
>>>
>>>> The Internet Wayback Machine is useful for dead URLs. I’ve used it to find resources no longer available and to make contact w people.
>>>>
>>>> — DM Smith
>>>> From my phone. Brief. Weird autocorrections.
>>>>
>>>> On Dec 2, 2018, at 10:47 AM, "refdoc at gmx.net" <refdoc at gmx.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Regarding how to find source:
>>>>>
>>>>> In our newer and better modules a source is given in the conf file. But sometimes that link is now dead.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my mobile. Please forgive shortness, typos and weird autocorrects.
>>>>>
>>>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>>>> Subject: [sword-devel] Modules, Tracker - some remarks
>>>>> From: refdoc at gmx.net
>>>>> To: sword-devel
>>>>> CC:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi to all
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1) I am so pleased and grateful for all the activity checking and testing modules wrt issues mentioned on the tracker
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2) There is a substantial minority of modules we do have source texts for (around 100) and I hold the key for them. They can not be shared to anyone, usually, as they tend to be not public domain texts. But the upshot for them is, I feel responsible in a direct way for them and take care of much in these weeks. So if you see me commenting on a module as the matter being in work, just move on , as it is in hand.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 3) There is a majority of texts, and some of them are very old in terms of CrossWire and we need to find sources for them, because we do not hold them. So, if you do not see me commenting that things are in hand, the module clearly requires a rebuilt and you want to push this actively forward, go and find the source.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 4) How to find sources:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Many public domain texts have been pushed forward and backward between projects since the start of the internet, are in a poor state and badly or not at all marked up, forced into KJV versification , or sometimes even chopped up in order to support sectarian views. Commonly for important texts though there exists somewhere someone who has decided to fix things. People who do try and fix things make this often very clear. Others refer/defer to them. It pays to get into direct contact with them to establish a link and maybe even let them produce OSIS or USFM for our use. We certainly always want to feed back any and all improvements we make to Mark Up etc.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 5)You find good authoritative source, put at least the link underneath the tracker and explain shortly why this is in your view the best source, particularly if there is a big choice. If you want to go and start working on a module, even better
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks again to all!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sent from my mobile. Please forgive shortness, typos and weird autocorrects.
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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