Revision as of 02:06, 3 May 2008

Sword Frontend Ideal Feature List

General UI features

• Bible reading
• Parallel view for Bibles
• Bible search
• Hyperlinked scripture references
• Unicode support
• Font choice on a global level and on a per language and/or per module level

Module support

For bibles, the following should be able to be turned on and off (if included in the underlying module):

• Headings
• Cross references (display & toggle)
• Footnotes (display & toggle)
• Strong's Numbers (display & toggle)
• Morphology (display & toggle)
• Toggling and/or simultaneous display of textual variants
• Toggling of Hebrew cantillation (important), vowels (less important), & morpheme segmentation (important?) and of Greek accents (fairly unimportant)

Genbooks, dictionaries and commentaries should all be supported.

User resources

The frontend should support user created material. Users should be able to put references in to any passage in the bible, or to any other module. Users should be able to create both commentaries and hierarchical books (and possibly dictionaries, i.e. topical notes).

Users should also be able to create verse lists, possibly with comments on each verse.

Search Features

Search should have the following features:

• Multiword search
• Phrase search
• Search Ranges

The search should also be able to complete a search very quickly (<5 seconds). It should by default match on full words (that is, searching for eat doesn't match verses with meat).

Usability

The frontend should be easy for users to use. Most of its features (and all of its major features) should be able to be used without having to look at the manual. Also, it should not contain bugs or crash.

Module installer features

The frontend should allow remote installation of modules from both the Crosswire website, and any other websites the user adds to their list. It should also allow the user to install the downloaded zips. Preferably, it should be able to install any of the forms of zip downloadable from the Crosswire website - raw zip, windows or mac.

Other

The ideal frontend should be open source (preferably GPL).

External libraries