BibleTime 2 Feature Suggestions
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It would be wonderful if BibleTime 2.0 would be able to automatically parse the Bible into sections using the available headings in the text data It would be good if additionaly to the book-chapter-verse navigation a section-subsection-subsubsection... navigation is offered in the user interface. This could be done with a tree view which contains the hierarchically ordered sections. Combined navigation in b-c-v and sections is not possible at the same time.
An example for a difficult to use section arrangement is (Bible GerDGN):
- Matthew 4:23-7:29
- Matthew 4:23-5:2a; 5:2b-12; 13:16
Some kind of context based navigation. For example:
- You're currently in Mt 5:7. In an additional window the current context-location could be offered: "Sermon on the mountain -> The tasks of the disciples".
Clicking on any of these titles would open the Bible window which shows the verses which belong to the chosen section. E.g. clicking on "Sermon on the mount" would open Mt 4:23 - 7:29 in the Bible.
I'll second to that. Chapter/verse reference system is very good for reference purposes but it's semantically misleading. Now you loose the context when you move to the next chapter. Adding passage headings would be great. But the text window should really show the passage and not care about the chapter/verse borders then.
One way to avoid loosing context is showing three chapters at a time. If you choose Gen 2 the window could show 1-3 and center on 2. More sofisticated way is to use predefined passage information, applied to the current text. Even if you choose an old-fashioned chapter, the text window takes a passage which starts at ch. 1 and ends at ch. two, and a passage which starts at ch. two and ends at ch. three, and shows them all.
I don't know how much work it would be to make up such predefined passage data. Basically it could be a list of verse ranges. E.g. some translation has passages 1:20b-2:15 and 2:16-3:2. Another one has 1:22-2:16a and 2:16b-3:3a. If we now choose ch. 2 in a translation which doesn't have passage headings the text window would show 1:20-3:3, centering on ch. 2. The user can see both preceding and following context. We don't need passage headings for that or any translation dependend information, only ranges. --Eeli
Interlinear Bible
Interlinear Bible is good for those who cannot read Greek/Hebrew fluently. Some Bible applications have an interlinear display. We have crossreferenced KJV/TR text so interlinear should be possible (Sword KJV has word number tags, referring to words in TR. And no, I don't mean Strong's numbers).
Another possibility would be a linked parallel display. If KJV and TR are inside one parallel display, hovering mouse over other text would highlight (with background color) all the words in that text which are linked into (a) word(s) in the other text, and the referred word(s).
For example Rev has "of the kings" which in TR is "twn basilewn". Hovering over "kings" would highlight "of the kings" and "twn basilewn".
Highlighting is easier to implement and doesn't add any clutter to user interface, but doesn't give as much information to user as real interlinear.
Deep integration or referencing of modules
Some programs have integrated different modules way much further than others (see this.) One way to implement that would be a table which has all the words in a text in a table. There would be one word for a row and columns could be:
- corresponding Greek word or Strong's number (or english translation) (so this could be used as an interlinear)
- links to dictionaries which have entry for this word
- link to quick search
Before the words of the verse could be a row for the verse, with links to commentaries which have something about that verse etc. --Eeli
Real commentaries are often hierarchically divided into sections which do not follow chapter and verse markers. For example it would be possible that a commentary has entries for
- II Corinthians 1:1-2:13
- II Corinthians 2:1-4
- II Corinthians 2:4
- II Corinthians 2:1-4
Misc things
- A positive point about BibleTime is the well ordered GUI structure.
- Using the current interface is way too difficult and too technical. An example is the installation of modules. An improved installation could be like this:
- BibleTime automatically searches for updated modules and offers a summary of the changes in a dialog and an "ok" button to download the modules in the background
- The installation of new modules: The bookshelf in BibleTime is an ideal place to install modules. In the normal view (like now) only the local modules are offered. We should offer a button to also show remote modules (grayed out). Clicking on one of those gives a summary of the content and features in the mag, double-clicking downloads the module from the server and then opens the module for reading. In a similar way we could also do the installation of more than one module.
Text layout
Text layout should be done with css. The c++ code should add only div and span elements with id and class properties. Thereby all layout can be done with css. Anyone interested can write an own css file and use that.
Let's take the mag window for example. It has a Strong definition and a morphology code. I don't need pronunciation. With css I could make in invisible. Also with div elements I could put the different parts anywhere I want. I would like to see the lemma and morphology code (without explanations) on top. Now I have to scroll down to see the morphology code. With css I could use visual formatting model to position the items if they are marked with id or class.
Even a javascript hook could be added: every time the text window content is changed, the user defined script runs. The possibilities are endless. --Eeli
Quick Search Bar
Firefox introduced to us a powerful quick find toolbar. That could be handy for Bible searches also. You have a translation, parallel translations or some other work open in one window. You press ctrl+F and the Quick Search toolbar opens above or under the text display area. It includes:
- close button
- text area (words to be searched for) with history
- drop-down list of results
- "Open in Search window" button
- some kind of progress indicator
- maybe some way to easily change the search area (E.g toggle whole Bible/the current Testament only)
You type the text and press enter. It does the search in background with some reasonable default settings and puts the results in the list. It searches only the text (texts) which is in the current window. The dropdown list button could show the hit count.
You open the list. It shows the verse references and some text. Not the whole text of the verse but the immidiate context of e.g. two words before and after. The list widget must be wide enough to show all the text. The hits are highlighted and there's no other formatting (this is for quick reference, not for study). There should be some limit for the shown hits (see my comments about dropdown lists elsewhere) and it should be thought what to do when that limit breaks. Maybe a tree list, book names and hit counts at first level, references at second.
You can hover over the reference and it is shown in Mag window or in tooltip, where there could be also other formatting than highlighting, e.g. Strong's numbers. But if it opens in Mag it has to be done so that the list doesn't cover the Mag. You can move to the reference by clicking it.
If you want to see more details or refine or configure the search you can open the current search terms and results in normal search window by clicking a button.
After you have done you can close the Search bar by clicking a button. Maybe it could be hidden when you activate another window. --Eeli
