[sword-devel] Versifications

[Cyrille]

Hello,
I would like to react to this message, I hope that I will not hurt
anyone, if my remarks are too direct, be indulgent knowing that English
is not my native language.
First, I thank each and every one of you for the wonderful work you have
done for all Bible readers and Christians in particular! It's a great work.
However, I would like to make some proposals for several difficulties
encountered during the contacts with this list.
First I would like to say that sometimes we get no response to our
messages, or that the discussion does not give away. For example, for
the question of Catholic versification, I had suggestions but I had to
relaunch the subject 3 times to finalize the problem. It's a little bit
discouraging. For all questions of module creation, thankfully David was
kind enough to support me and train me. He really was my mentor! Thanks
to him!! Otherwise I think we wouldn't have a module in Kikongo or in
Lingala... However I am well aware that everyone is in his business and
we are all volunteers and therefore I do not blame you but rather a
desire to improve collaboration.
I also do this remark because the information you give Peter, with this
message, should have come a little earlier, but as we say in French
"better later than never":) Now I am informed.

Afterwards, I would like to add my point of view regarding Catholic
modules. I deplore the lack of initiative on the part of Catholics (I
am, so I do not accuse anyone from outside), the obstinacy to keep the
rights and the refusal to freely spread the Word of God. For example I
have 5 private Catholic modules that I can not share.

Now about the Catholic and Catholic2 v11n, and their update in
Cathoc_lit. It is true that there are not 100 verses of different. But
what is important to know is that the current V11n contain errors that
the news want to correct. This is important not because there is a lot
of error but because there are potentially many bibles that may be
affected by this versification. In fact the Catholic versification is
fairly homogeneous thanks to the neo-vulgate and the Jerasulem Bible 
which remains a reference in the catholic Church.
I have the ambition besides to propose you other modules in Kinyarwanda,
Tshiluba and Swahili...
As for the current modules with the current Catholic v11n, well I'm
ready to collaborate! (Know my availability (for today) I do not know
where I would be in 6 months!) I know nothing about programming, but on
the module side I'm starting to be capable :)
If you give me access to the current sources of Catholic versification,
I can update it to the new versification.
It is not so complicated. We can propose a module with a new name if
necessary, it is possible to discuss it!
Why not doing a gitlab private repo with all the sources? Someone want
to collaborate (as for the example of the LXX) you can easily give him
access.

I was a little long please forgive me.

May God continue to bless this work for his glory, fr Cyrille

Le 03/01/2018 à 17:50, Peter Von Kaehne a écrit :
> Dear all,
>
> There are a bunch of sometimes confused and sometimes confusing comments currently on a variety of threads, so here a short summary of current policy, reasons behind it and future re versifications.
>
> 1) Loading versification schemes takes time on low resource environments, making programme startup slow. We therefore have a policy of being very very slow in accepting the need for any new versifications. 
>
> 2) New ones need to fulfill a definite need beyond say ~ 100 verses ( a number was set once, and I think it was 100) verses being out of sync in a variety of places. 100 verses in a single or two places of course (like Malachi with its 3 or 4 chapters would be more readily be accepted as a problem. 
>
> 3) Also, the more new or existing modules would be served by a new versification the better. We do not aim for perfection with the existing versifications but for approximation and best service for the largest number of essentially similar texts. 
>
> 4) Exceptions are important historical/ original source texts. Here perfect cover for a single module is needed and versifications have been added for single modules.   
>
> 5) It is essentially impossible to withdraw existing versifications as people have all kinds of devices and access our texts from all kinds of new and old versions of our programmes - once added, we aim for never having to withdraw a versification.
>
> Up until a couple of years ago and everything prior to the new French versifications has been processed and approved by Chris Little who had an exceptional eye for detail and at the same time an exceptional ability to keep a high level overview. 
>
> I have taken on the mantle of Chris in several areas - fixes around the filters, module making tools and in particular module uploads etc, but I am neither detail obsessed enough nor interested enough in matters of versifications to continue doing what he did. No one else has so far come forward with an expressed desire to hold that mantle. 
>
> When Troy discussed the recent new catholic versifications I advised him not to accept these into the current release unless someone else considers them as a) needed and b) correctly done. When Domcox put his 3 French versifications in there had been a long accepted need for just these which preceeded Chris' leaving, so it was a lot easier to simply agree to put them in. But this is now missing. from now on for all new currently discussed versifications and potential other ones.
>
> So, we need a new approval person or process to move forward here. Without it, there is no decent way forward to accept new versifications. 
>
> An entirely separate matter is mapping of references to versifications. We have limited mapping data in the engine. Not all existing versifications are covered and not all kind of references will ever likely be satisfactorily mapped. Where the data is there, the process is transparent That is if you open a reference to the plague of the frogs by a French Bible in, say, a Russian Synodal translation, then the exact same story should come up, even if it is out by a chapter and 3 verses or whatever in terms of absolute references. 
>
> Where this will not ever work in the deuterocanonical material - as said above - it is highly unlikely that this will ever be satisfactorily mapped. But normal canonical material should be always mappable unless deliberately left out (e.g. some verses in the NT not in the newer Greek editions). 
>
> As the mapping data is likely to become more complete as time goes on and will always get into engine releases as fast as possible there is emphatically no reason to create workarounds WITHIN modules to fix missing mapping data. Rather, if you perceive a problem submit your data as mapping data and we can all benefit in many more modules than just your own. 
>
> Hope this clarifies some things.    
>
> Peter  
>
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