<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Fast Search could benefit from this, but SWORD uses plain text as an input to Lucene index creation and searching. The implementation of the Lucene analyzer that SWORD uses for all texts uses ASCII space as a word break. The presence of various zero width characters would not help. Nor would using <w>…</w><w>…</w> without an ASCII space.<div><br></div><div>Plain text, also called strip text, does double duty. Presentation without markup and preparation for indexing. For latinate texts, this works fine. I don’t know if LocalStripFilter could help in this.</div><div><br></div><div>In Him,</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>DM<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On May 1, 2025, at 7:46 AM, Peter von Kaehne <refdoc@gmx.net> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div><div dir="ltr">I think this is not difficult per se, but it should be properly encoded. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><w> seems correct, using zero with characters seems not correct. </div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Peter</div><div id="ms-outlook-mobile-body-separator-line" dir="ltr"><br></div><div id="ms-outlook-mobile-signature">Sent from <a href="https://aka.ms/o0ukef">Outlook for iOS</a></div><div id="mail-editor-reference-message-container" class="ms-outlook-mobile-reference-message"><hr style="display: inline-block; width: 98%;"><div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b>From:</b> sword-devel <sword-devel-bounces@crosswire.org> on behalf of David Haslam <dfhdfh@protonmail.com><br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, May 1, 2025 11:30 am<br><b>To:</b> sword-devel mailing list <sword-devel@crosswire.org><br><b>Cc:</b> David Haslam <df.haslam@btinternet.com><br><b>Subject:</b> [sword-devel] Proposal for a new SWORD filter to display word dividers</span><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> </div></div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I wish to propose that we design in a new SWORD filter.<br><br>The conf key would be:</div><ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-type: disc;"><b>GlobalOptionFilter=ShowWordDividers</b></li></ul><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In the writing systems for the various languages of SE Asia (<b>Thai</b>, <b>Khmer</b>, <b>Lao</b>, <b>Myanmar</b>) there is [generally] <b>no space between words</b>.</div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In this respect, they are like many European languages before the start of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Space-Between-Words-Origins-Medieval/dp/080474016X" title="silent reading">silent reading</a>. The descriptive term is <b><i>Scriptura Continua</i></b>.</div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br>Some Bible translations for this region are already making use of one of the ZERO WIDTH characters to invisibly mark the divisions between lexical words.</div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Options include:</div><ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-type: disc;">U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE</li><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-type: disc;">U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER</li><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-type: disc;">U+FEFF ZERO WIDTH NO BREAK SPACE</li></ul><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">They exclude:</div><ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-type: disc;">U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER</li></ul><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">A further possibility, even without requiring a full study Bible with Strong's, etc, is to simply wrap each lexical word within the OSIS <b>w</b> element.</div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">One without any OSIS attributes would suffice for this purpose. Likewise, for the <b>seg</b> element.</div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">My proposal is that we design a feature to <b>show/hide word dividers</b> by displaying them using a suitable visible but non-intrusive character.</div><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">My suggestion is to use this Unicode character by default:</div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-type: disc;">U+00B7 MIDDLE DOT</li></ul><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">We could even allow the actual visible character to be specified in a second conf key, thus:</div><div dir="ltr" class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-type: disc;">VisibleWordDivider=U+00B7</li></ul><div dir="ltr" class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Benefits would include:</div><ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Helps with language learning to know where lexical words start and end</li><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Helps with front-end search for whole words, exact phrase or all words</li><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Helps with checking the accuracy of Bible translations by clearly displaying lexical word boundaries at the touch of a single key in the front-end</li><li style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Paves the way for Study Bible with the addition of Strong's mark-up, etc.</li></ul><div dir="ltr" class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Here's a sample of Khmer verse text with the MIDDLE DOT as the visible word divider:</div><blockquote style="padding-left: 10px; border-left-width: 3px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(200, 200, 200);"><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><b>Obad.1.1</b> </div><table class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="width: 561pt; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><tbody><tr><td class="protonmail_signature_block-user" align="left" style="width: 561pt; height: 29.25pt; border-width: 0.5pt medium 0.5pt 0.5pt; border-style: solid none solid solid; border-color: white currentcolor white white; background-color: rgb(184, 204, 228); padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-left: 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">នេះ·ជា·សុបិន·និមិត្ដ·របស់·លោក·អូបាឌា
ព្រះអម្ចាស់·ជា·ព្រះ·មាន·បន្ទូល·ពី·ក្រុង·អេដំម ។
យើង·បាន·ឮ·ដំណឹង·មក·ពី·ព្រះអម្ចាស់ គឺ·មាន·ទូត·ម្នាក់·បាន·បញ្ជូន·ឲ្យ·ទៅ
ក្នុង·ចំណោម·ជន·ជាតិ·ទាំង·ឡាយ·ដោយ·ពាក្យ·ថា "ចូរ·ក្រោក·ឡើង !
ចូរ·យើង·ក្រោក·ឡើង·ធ្វើ·ចម្បាំង·ទាស់·និង·គេ"</div></td></tr></tbody></table></blockquote><div dir="ltr" class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">cf. Here's what it looks like with the ZWSP as the in<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">visible word </span>divider:</div><blockquote style="padding-left: 10px; border-left-width: 3px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(200, 200, 200);"><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><b>Obad.1.1</b></div><table class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="width: 561pt; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><tbody><tr><td class="protonmail_signature_block-user" align="left" style="width: 561pt; height: 29.25pt; border-width: 0.5pt medium 0.5pt 0.5pt; border-style: solid none solid solid; border-color: white currentcolor white white; background-color: rgb(184, 204, 228); padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-left: 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">នេះជាសុបិននិមិត្ដរបស់លោកអូបាឌា
ព្រះអម្ចាស់ជាព្រះមានបន្ទូលពីក្រុងអេដំម ។
យើងបានឮដំណឹងមកពីព្រះអម្ចាស់ គឺមានទូតម្នាក់បានបញ្ជូនឲ្យទៅ
ក្នុងចំណោមជនជាតិទាំងឡាយដោយពាក្យថា "ចូរក្រោកឡើង !
ចូរយើងក្រោកឡើងធ្វើចម្បាំងទាស់និងគេ"</div></td></tr></tbody></table></blockquote><div dir="ltr" class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">If SWORD developers agree that my proposal merits consideration, please would you start on the software development.</div><div dir="ltr" class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div dir="ltr" class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
Best regards,<br><br>David
</div><div dir="ltr" class="protonmail_signature_block" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div class="protonmail_signature_block-proton" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
Sent with <a href="https://pr.tn/ref/SWXT9A5YZ67G">Proton Mail</a> secure email.
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