[CS-FSLUG] Mac to Linux: Bible Software

[Timothy Butler]

> Hi.  I'm primary developer plus project admin for GnomeSword, one of  
> the
> 2 Sword applications for Linux (along with BibleTime).

	Ah, yes, a very fine program. I appreciated your UI design.

> Sword has ESV.  Crosswire has an agreement with the ESV folks to
> distribute a free, full-featured ESV module.  It's available right  
> there
> in Crosswire's regular module repository.

	Nice, thanks!
>
> The folks at bible.org have Sword modules for NET Bible.  I have  
> come to
> like NET very much, especially due to its notes, which I read as a
> separate commentary-style module alongside NET itself.  (I consider  
> this
> appropriate because NET's notes are so large, featureful, and complete
> that they do not suit "previewer" or "popup" style footnote  
> management.
> Sometime, look at NET's footnotes on Song 5:4 -- 10Kbytes of  
> discussion
> in 5 footnotes on the many euphemistic possibilities for  
> interpretation
> in a verse with only 15 words.)  Their modules come in 2 flavors, free
> (notes are semi-crippled) and for-fee (full notes; $20, I think).

	They are pretty amazingly extensive.

>
>
> There will be a NASB module set (Bible + lexicons) as soon as the  
> logjam
> within Sword itself can be broken loose.  This will be sold directly  
> by
> Lockman Foundation (www.lockman.org).  I don't know the expected  
> price.

Very nice!

>
>
> Greek manuscripts: We have rather more Greek texts by now than we know
> what to do with.  I maintain a particular Greek NT, TischMorph,  
> which is
> Tischendorf's 8th Ed. as edited by Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen,  
> available at
> http://morphgnt.org/.  It's fully annotated with Strong's, morphology,
> lemmas, and even includes variant readings.  I also constructed a  
> custom
> two-testament Greek bible, containing LXX OT + TischMorph NT,  
> because I
> find it personally useful to have a single end-to-end Greek Bible.

	Wow, that is very nice. Perhaps I spoke to soon. For papers and such  
as seminary, I'm pretty well bound to UBS or NA, but for my personal  
use, that sounds intriguing. Good idea!

>
>
> Lexicons, dictionaries...  Well, we have Ergane lexicons by the ton:
> English->modern Greek, English->ancient Greek, English->Hebrew,
> Greek->Hebrew, Hebrew->Greek of LXX words, ...  You get the idea.   
> There
> is a Hesychius Greek Lexicon.  We also have ISBE, Nave, TSK, and a
> number of the other more-or-less standard resources you probably  
> expect.

	Admittedly, I haven't looked for awhile, but at the time, the problem  
was most of them were very old ones (the sort I couldn't get away with  
using). For the most part, (for better or for worse) it seems that the  
world revolves around BDAG. You don't happen to know if there is any  
work being done to bring it to SWORD, do you?
>
> GnomeSword itself has moved forward in drastically huge steps in the
> last 2 years.  It is far, far more stable; its module manager has  
> become
> actually useful; its search capabilities are considerable; we have
> user-editable support both in personal commentaries (GnomeSword will
> support multiple personal commentaries, useful for simultaneously
> working up several sermons or Bible studies) and in journals and  
> prayer
> lists, which are essentially what we call a "genbook" (general book)
> that GnomeSword understands how to edit.  On platforms supporting an
> adequate display library, it shows Strong's, lemmas, and morphology  
> in a
> blocked pseudointerlinear style.  GnomeSword's next release will  
> provide
> automatic font support if a module has its own idea of a preferred  
> font,
> as well as supporting what's being called "companion modules": Some
> modules come in what amounts to a Bible+commentary pair, like NET and
> its notes, or NAB and its notes, so if you open one of them,  
> GnomeSword
> notices a companion specification in the configuration, and offers to
> open both.  This latter was due to some brainstorming at last  
> January's
> BibleTech conference, when I and a couple Wycliffe guys were debating
> their needs in the hotel lobby.


	Neat. I will make sure to try it again, soon.

>
> As for those translations that we don't officially have available,  
> there
> are in fact ways of generating many of them using texts found on the
> web.  I personally have NIV, NIrV, RSV, NRSV, NLT, NKJV, 3MB,  
> Amplified,
> NAB, and CEV...but I can't distribute them, they're effectively  
> personal
> proof-of-concept things if I could ever get someone's attention at the
> appropriate copyright-owning sources.  Those modules hide in a second,
> private repository of mine, waiting for a particular sunny day, if you
> know what I mean.  I can tell you how to generate such modules  
> yourself
> using scripts I wrote to do the hard work but I can't ship finished
> modules anywhere (and so the Sword Project itself doesn't support  
> them).

	Thanks, that would be interesting. I think I tried a module like that  
years ago and didn't get very far. I'd be interested to see if I could  
get it to work again.

>
>
> Anyhow, this is too long by half now, I suppose, but I'd like to make
> clear that Sword Project applications do get stuff done.  We're more
> featureful than most folks realize, but you'll have to go looking for
> really recent information to learn what you need to know.  We are (I  
> am)
> extremely interested in others' interests for new features and
> capabilities.  By all means, if you have questions, please ask.


	Thanks, Karl.

	-Tim

---
Timothy R. Butler | "Turning and turning in the widening gyre
tbutler at ofb.biz   |  The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
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