[sword-devel] Doing something useful with the OSIS name element?

[David Haslam]

Dear developers,

A few years back, DM Smith and I discussed the possibility to enhance the CrossWire flagship KJV module by marking all names therein - each with suitable attributes.
This is still something I'd like to be involved with when I have more free time for CrossWire activities.

AFAICT, the SWORD API currently doesn't do anything special with the OSIS name element.
IMHO, we could do something useful here and thereby enhance the understanding of a suitably marked up Biblical text.

Suggestions:

- Provide a new filter to display words wrapped within the name element using (e.g.) bold font style.
- Support a new module configuration key GlobalOptionFilter=OSISNames to allow the front-end to toggle this on and off.
- Add API support to succinctly display attribute values for the name element (e.g. by mouseover tooltip, etc).

Discussion points:

- There are some words that are used as a name in some places but as an ordinary common word in other places.
- Although we capitalise names in English, we also capitalise the first word of every sentence, thus potentially leading to ambiguities for new readers.
- All nouns in German are capitalised, so a learner of the language has an even harder job to know which words are names.
- There are several writing systems in which there is no visual clue at all to indicate which words are names.
- cf. There are even some writing systems in which there is no space between words.
- Not all writing systems have font support for bold style, so perhaps an alternative display method might need to be defined in the .conf file ?

Best regards,

David

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