Re: Apps Roundup #2: Focus on Bibletime 1.0

faq
flatforty
contribute
subscribe
configure
search
rdf

main
parent
thread

Re: Apps Roundup #2: Focus on Bibletime 1.0
by wSaintx on Monday 16/Jul/2001, @12:30

This is silly, if you want support for 8 more religions then contribute it!!

It is like if you said: I don't want Wine unless it can run 0S/2 programs too.

Come on, my agnostic friend, don't let your faith shadow your mind! ;-)

Related Links

·   Articles on Applications
·   Also by wSaintx
·   Contact author

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )

Re: Apps Roundup #2: Focus on Bibletime 1.0
by Per Wigren on Monday 16/Jul/2001, @13:00

Hey, it's (probably) a great program, but because of the international nature of KDE it shouldn't be included in the *distribution*!

Personally I don't care much about any religion, but a lot of people do! And a lot of people of other religions will feel like it is christian propaganda.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Apps Roundup #2: Focus on Bibletime 1.0
by craig on Monday 16/Jul/2001, @16:07

Thats just anti-Christian propaganda. From your own logic if kde isn't combatale with all languages then we should not release it.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Apps Roundup #2: Focus on Bibletime 1.0
by Chris Little on Monday 16/Jul/2001, @17:43

Just on a technical note, since you mention internationality, I'd like to point out BibleTime has much more thorough integration of international features than most programs, even on KDE. The interface is localizable. The book names are localizable (and quite easily extended if your locale isn't included already). And the texts come in your choice of over 40 languages.

I know this isn't really your complaint, but I wanted to point out that it is QUITE international.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Apps Roundup #2: Focus on Bibletime 1.0
by craig on Monday 16/Jul/2001, @16:04

Different Religious groups could make there own sword plugins. Should the Bibletime team be punished because they have not done that? Or should the sword project be forced to make Buddhist or Hindu plugins? Of course not. Lets not let your anti Christian prejudice cloud your reasoning.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Apps Roundup #2: Focus on Bibletime 1.0
by Eduardo Sanchez on Monday 16/Jul/2001, @16:45

100% Agreement with Craig. Per should note the following:

1. BibleTime does *not* include the sacred texts themselves. For that, you should go to the SWORD website, download *and compile* the SWORD manager, and then install the appropriate modules.

2. BibleTime can handle any text, really ANY text that conform to the SWORD standard. Furthermore, it uses the Theological Markup Language (ThML), a subset of XML developed at Calvin College for using at the Christian Classic Ethereal Library (http://ccel.org)

3. BibleTime is evidence that a KDE application can handle a very large database of rich data types. In that regard, the breaktroughs of the BibleTime developers can be extended further; and I have especially in mind the educational sector, one of the Holy Grails of the Linux desktop. (How's that for a BibleTime-based encyclopaedia?)

BibleTime is something that should make all of us glad, whether we're religious of not. For my part, I am working on a Spanish translation of it; is the least way in which I can support such undertaking.

[ Reply To This | View ]

I am against putting this into KDE as well
by Moritz Moeller-Herrmann on Tuesday 17/Jul/2001, @05:56

While I am personally agnostic (with an atheistic bias), I think including this program could cause problems for KDE users in Arabic and other intolerant countries. (Saudi-Arabia, Lybia, Afghanistan, Cuba)

Unless you rename the program to a neutral name (K Text Study) and provide access to the Koran and maybe other texts, I would keep it seperate. This is not an antireligious opeinion, I don't care about your beliefs at all, but I think it would damage KDE's reputation in non-christian countries with censorship.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: I am against putting this into KDE as well
by Chris Bordeman on Tuesday 17/Jul/2001, @17:01

That is a really good point, but I doubt this app would become part of the main distro since most people would never have any use for it.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Apps Roundup #2: Focus on Bibletime 1.0
by Scott on Monday 16/Jul/2001, @18:14

I think a simple solution would be to create an optional KDE-Religion package for all religious software.

I work for a Christian web site (www.gospelcom.net) and go to Calvin College (where ThML is being developed by Harry Plantinga, one of the CS profs). I think in the general scheme of getting people to use KDE, having religious applications would be helpful. I certainly think Bibletime would be more widely used and appreciated than say, the Fractals Generator. I'm around quite a few Christians that regularly use Bible software; it'd be great to also get them hooked on KDE.

Also ThML is geared designed to meet the needs of religious texts in general. While it has a Christian slant, it has many properties which are useful for marking up other theological texts. Here's the abstract for the spec:

This document describes the Theological Markup Language (ThML), an XML markup language for theological texts. ThML was developed for use in the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL), but it is hoped that the language will serve as a royalty-free format for theological texts in other applications. Key design goals are that the language should be (1) rich enough to represent information needed for digital libraries and for theological study involving multiple, related texts, including cross-reference, synchronization, indexing, and scripture references, (2) based on XML and usable with World Wide Web tools, (3) automatically convertible to other common formats, and (4) easy to learn and use. ThML is defined as an XML DTD that extends the Voyager DTD for HTML.

I also don't think Christains would have any problem with inclusions of texts of other faiths. Bibletime may serve as a catalyst for other faiths to work on similar software for their texts.

[ Reply To This | View ]

The Fine Print: The previous comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )


		"He may be a Hotmail user, but the patch works, so who am I to argue?" -- Charles Samuels
KDE®, "K Desktop Environment", "KDE Dot News", "got the dot?" and the KDE Logo® are trademarks or registered trademarks of KDE e.V. in the European Union, the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the poster. The rest: Copyright © 2000-2008 KDE e.V. for The KDE Project. For further information or comments on this site, please contact the Webmaster.