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At 22:38 22/04/2010, Chris Burrell wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Just thought I'd share a few
sites that have cropped up recently from various people in the listings
and outside. If we could pull ideas off those interfaces, I think we
could end up with something really good.<br><br>
1-
<a href="http://my.offlinebible.com/index.php">
http://my.offlinebible.com/index.php</a><br>
2-
<a href="http://code.google.com/p/xulsword/" eudora="autourl">
http://code.google.com/p/xulsword/</a><br>
3-
<a href="http://www.bibleglo.com/">http://www.bibleglo.com/</a><br><br>
Chris</blockquote><br>
I like lots of things in XulSword. <br>
What I liked about OffLineBible:<br>
* Bookmarks - click on it, and it displays the ref it is marking.<br>
* different formats (no Strongs; inline Strongs, interlinear Strongs,
columns <br>
* the line along the top where you can pick a chapter (a bit fiddly to
use, but an interesting idea)<br>
BibleGlo<br>
* all the bling. OK, it isn't necessary, but it looks cool - well,
impressive. <br>
* the add campaign (now that advertising can be free, who says it doesn't
pay?)<br><br>
OK, Here are some positive ideas: <br><br>
I like the idea of two panes of text, as in the prototype, and in
XulSword, <br>
with a wide tab area for navigation on the left as in XulSword, <br>
* the XulSword tabs are in two columns with a narrow left-hand column of
OT/NT, <br>
and a wider right-hand column which lists of books for OT
or NT<br>
but I think we can develop that further: <br>
Instead of having just OT and NT in the narrow
left-most tab, we can have other things, <br>
which bring up more things in the wider right-hand
tab:<br>
- OldT - listing OT books<br>
- NewT - listing NT books<br>
- Geog - listing placenames<br>
- Hist - listing periods<br>
- Lit - listing significant extra-biblical books<br>
- Lang - listing languages<br>
- Who - listing people<br>
- Find - a search box listing results <br><br>
With some of these, we will have to display a cut-down list, perhaps with
<br>
[+] at the side to open up the item into more detail, eg for people:
<br>
[+] Aaron <br>
[+] Baalam<br>
[+] Caanan<br>
- giving just 26 entries displayed. <br>
For Languages I'd suggest an interface like 2LetterLookup.com<br><br>
The equal sized panes of text could be like in XulSword, ie:<br><br>
* each pane can show a different chapter of the Bible <br>
or the same chap in a different version, or they can be <br>
linked to show more of the chapter, flowing from one to the other.
<br>
* a raisable bridge icon (like London Tower Bridge?) can join or
separate them <br><br>
* both panes have an identical set of tabs across the top<br>
* these tabs need to be in two layers, classifying them into <br>
- English (ie PD versions)<br>
- European, (ie other language groups)<br>
- African<br>
- Eastern (etc as needed)<br>
- Online (ie IFrames to NIV and other commercial version
websites)<br>
- Ancient (ie Greek, Hebrew, ancient versions)<br>
* at the bottom of each pane, there's a box which minimises when not in
use<br>
* below this box is another set of tabs determining what these boxes
show<br>
(and when the box is minimised, they remain as a set of
buttons)<br>
* These tabs include: <br>
- footnotes (ie all the footnotes of verses in that
chapter)<br>
- cross-refs (ie all the crossrefs of verses in that
chapter)<br>
- personal notes (for that chap)<br>
- names (ie all the people and places named, with
links to dictionaries)<br>
- timeline (ie a minimised view of the time represented by
that chapter) <br>
- vocab (ie all Greek, Hebrew and English words which occur
in the chapter)<br><br>
* between the two text panes put a column of bookmarks, <br>
with an arrow in both directions, so you can open in either
pane<br>
* at the top are "manual" bookmarks and at the bottom are
"automatic" bookmarks<br>
- add a manual bookmark by clicking on an arrow at the top middle
of each text <br>
- an automatic bookmark is added everyone a pane moves away from a
chapter <br>
by any means other than scrolling<br>
* the two sets of bookmarks accumulate vertically in order of setting
them<br>
and when they run out of room, there is a scroll function to see
older ones<br>
* a "back" button at the top of each text pane keeps a history
of what was displayed on that pane<br><br>
* when you hover over a tagged word, definitions etc appear as a
hover<br>
* this hover does NOT appear next to the cursor, but always in the Tab
area on the left, <br>
because this area is not being used once a person has gone
where they want to go, <br>
whereas an overlay by the cursor obscures the exact text
being studied<br>
* hover works within the text panes, and also in the boxes <br>
- hovering over a cross-ref shows the verse, <br>
- hovering over a Greek word in the text pane or a box shows
a lexicon entry<br>
- hovering over a place name in text or pane or a box shows
dictionary entry <br>
etc<br>
* when you click on a ref (rather than hovering over it), the left-hand
text pane <br>
goes to that chapter and highlights the verse clicked on<br>
* when you click on a word or place or date (rather than hovering over
it), <br>
the right-hand text pane shows a full lexicon or map or timeline.
<br><br>
* A Search box is permanently visible at top left, above the Tabs <br>
and results appear in the wider right-hand Tabs area <br>
- this searches for English, Greek, Hebrew, numbers (for Strongs)
and Refs <br>
working out for itself what it is searching for.
<br><br>
<br>
We have LOTS of data to display, but we want to try and accommodate small
screens - big problem!<br>
Let's assume that phone screens will get bigger. <br>
My Toshiba G910 has 800x600 pixels in eye-watering 2.5"x1.7"
size, which is great for those under 40, <br>
but as soon as your lenses harden, you need +3 glasses to see the
details. <br>
I think phones will go in the way of high-density screens, though laptops
may not follow. <br>
But I don't think we should assume that we will have this much space.
<br>
Although we can display a lot, people can't see so much detail.
<br><br>
On small screens, we can treat the three areas (tabs on the left, and two
text panes) <br>
as separate screens which you drag into view as on an iPhone. <br>
With small screens, the hover area will have to be near the cursor, as in
most systems. <br><br>
Can someone with artistic skills make a visual of all this? <br><br>
David IB</body>
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