[sword-devel] I give up

[Tom Sullivan]

Y'all:

First, I recognize that as a writer and long retired developer and 
engineer (and thus obsolete) that in terms of technical issues, I am way 
out of my league with all you C++ programmers and experts.

Second, I want to thank all of you for your hard work. Compared to what 
is available for Windows and Mac users, available Bible software and 
tools are sparse. You work as volunteers and on a shoestring budget. 
Very many thanks. Without your work, I would be back to books and paper 
without being able to search, compare versions, etc., with such ease. 
Linux users are definitely an under served people group and you fill a 
big need.

Some of you may remember my SwordHammer project. Frankly, it has crashed 
and burned. Due to an architecture decision that was not the best, it 
became unwieldy. And now, due to changes in my life, I cannot continue, 
though I had started on a new architecture. This has two consequences:
1. There probably is not any longer reason to continue on this list much 
longer.
2. I got an appreciation for the huge problem caused by incompatible 
Linux distros. For example, I did not know that Ubuntu users were 
limited to sudo, instead of being able to run as root.

Many of my previous interactions with this list have been caused by my 
use of obsolete versions. I cannot help it. I seem only able to install 
packages from the Debian repository (or download a *.deb suitable for 
Debian Buster and install). I recently tried to compile and install 
Sword (which worked), BibleTime (which crashed), and Xiphos (which I was 
not able to compile by various tries.) There are errors in the docs, and 
discrepancies between docs, and who knows what.) I failed. So I am 
stuck, and that is not mainly your fault. The problem is that there is 
no Linux-wide packaging or installation system. It may or may not be 
technically feasible, I don't know). When things go wrong, I often have 
no idea how to fix them.

So I have two suggestions here, but let me start with an analogy. When I 
have to buy a new vehicle, my concern is not if the seat is nice and the 
radio works and the vanity light works. I want it to safely take me 
where I want to go. If there is a rip in the seat or dents in the body 
or some rust or something, I can live with that. So, I am willing to 
live with what is in the repositories and not waste everybody else's 
time with bug reports. I apologize for doing that. It was not 
intentional, but that is what happened.

Suggestion 1: Clean up documentation. Prime exhibit: May Crosswire page 
refers to Sword 1.8.0 with link for months with no mention of 1.8.1.

Suggestion 2: For the more popular distros, provide ready-to-go 
packages, .deb files (or equivalent, such as .rpm) for installs and 
updates, even if they do not hit the repositories until later. This will 
get users access who are not experts. In my opinion, for what it is 
worth, this is at least as important as new features. Also allow users 
an option to automatically check for updates and tell where to get a new 
package. I understand that this takes time and work. I would rather get 
some new features and bug fixes, and be able to get and use them, than 
new features I will never see because I can't compile or something. I 
rather think that others are also in my position as well.

For what it is worth, and sorry it is so long. Sorry again for wasting 
all your time in the past. God bless you and keep up all the good work. 
It is not perfect, but it is definitely good and I use your stuff many 
hours a week and every day.

Sincerely,
Tom Sullivan

-- 
Tom Sullivan
info at BeForgiven.INFO
FAX: 815-301-2835
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