Greetings,

I am going to be developing a Bible program soon. I am not telling you what my plans are for it, not even what my technical specs are, because I don't want you to limit your ideas based off of what you think I can do.

So be wild, and brainstorm. I want to know what you use most in Bible programs, what you like to use in Bible programs, what you've heard of in Bible programs that you think would be useful/cool, and what you wish Bible programs did but don't (that you know of).

I have only one note: this is a KJV-only application, so features related to multiple versions won't be included. Just to let you know.

I am really looking forward to seeing what all you guys come up with! Thanks in advance.

Wow, this sounds amazing, Jay! I use e-Sword most, is that the sort of program you mean? I use the feature where you can click on words and see what the Greek word and meaning etc is most, and also the search bar where you type in a word or part of a verse and it brings up all the verses with those words in. I also use the section at the side where you can write and save notes next to the passage you are studying.

Yep, exactly.

Greek meanings linked to words, text search, notes. Good features, I am planning all those.

What kinds of features do/would you like in the notes?

Public notes, shared notes, and collaborative notes?

Well of course, I just wanted to know if there was something more that I wasn't including.

Oh, that sounds like fun! I mostly read the KJV, so this will be perfect, because some of the words (like "hap", in Ruth) make me confused. ("Hap" is kind of like fate or kismet.)

I think so. The Biblical word used, however, is just "hap". When I first looked at the little study page my pastor gave me, I was thinking hap was something totally different than what it ended up being.

Basically it would just be a networking feature so you can make your own notes public, share them with friends, or keep them private. And then you can browse public notes. Simple, all in one program.

For that kind of stuff, Elly, it is best to look it up in Webster's 1828 dictionary. I will be linking that in too.

Actually, I just "hap" to know about that from a Ruth Bible study we did at church.

@Jay: One feature I use in E-Sword is the ability to 'write your own commentary' sort of, by adding notes to each verse in the bible (or section of verses, or whatever). Such a feature would be essential to me before I'd switch to anything else.

Unfortunately, I must agree with Inesdar. Unless it has multiple translations, I wouldn't use it. Perhaps make it extensible and allow your community to upload other translations?

eru

Right, the notes feature would be linked to verses or passages, enabling that method of use.

Well, other translations have copyright issues for one thing. For another I just don't want to provide anything other than KJV for conscience's sake.

I haven't read the rest of the thread - sorry! - but I wanted to toss in a couple of quick thoughts. This is a delightful project and I really look forward to seeing how it comes out.

Search is essential. One of the main reasons I pull up e-sword is to quickly find a passage when I can only remember a couple of words.

Make the formatting of the page such that it's easy to copy and paste the verses and have them look "nice" without needing to edit them a lot. Maybe there's a way to change it on e-sword, but when you copy and paste, it displays the book, chapter, and verse on each verse, instead of just the verse number. It can be rather fiddly to reformat. Again, one of the primary reasons I use a Bible computer program is to copy and paste passages into internet and writing applications.

And user notes. I don't use a Bible program for taking notes currently, but I could definitely see using that in the future.

One thing I do during my Bible study is write down verses that apply to specific projects I'm working on. I have whole lists - in bits and pieces all over my room - of verses that go with each of my novels. It would be great if there was a feature on the program to add verses to a "list" so I could open the list and see all the verses together, instead of looking them up individually.

Notes seem to be coming up often, I will definitely be including that.

And yes, I have several different search types/algorithms I will be providing as options for searches.

Ah yes... copy and paste formatting. Good point.

Lists of verses is a good idea I hadn't thought of! Brilliant idea. Thanks!

Perhaps when you copy a box could popup that allows you to select if you want it in plain text or with verse numbers, etc.

eru

Last night I had an idea. What if when you select something, it will automatically put it in a clipboard box, in which you can manipulate its styling (like automatically making it preceded with the book name, chapter name, and passage range while all the verses only have the first number) before copying it out into something else?

What if you could see a particular verse and be able to print it out with the highlighted notes or whatnot? Perhaps an 'official' Bible study printout, with notes and all, in a list?

I think, if you could still do a quick copy & paste if you didn't want to mess with it, that would be epic, Jay.

Good ideas.

I don't really have any because I don't use Bible programs, and when I do, it's NIV. (the older edition, not the 2011 or 2010)

This is really cool, Jay. Other than the things already mentioned (won’t repeat), I use a lot of virtual tour type stuff, which is why I'm a big Ilumina user. I like to search out things on the temple, the sacrifices, the time period, trade, and all those "little" things. It helps get a fuller understanding if you have those tidbits about the culture you are reading about.

Not that you have to have virtual tours or anything, but I am always very disappointed in commentaries or bible programs that fail to include, or have next to nothing, on these kinds of things, in general.

A print version of a set of passages with their notes. Yep, sounds good.



Righto, I'll make sure that works too.



Virtual tours... you mean like extrabiblical cultural information tied into the relevant passages? Hmmm... That would be hard to compile, but with the social network setup on the note system, you could almost have a wikipedia-type user-based public note system that has that kind of stuff. What do you think of that?

Well, the virtual tour thing is different, and hard to explain. Like you actually have a virtual replica of, say... the temple. and you walk through it and learn placements and - never mind. I wasn't saying you should have virtual tours. But the info part is correct, yes.


Sure, that could work, I guess.

How's this coming, Jay?