Revision as of 11:17, 2 March 2009

Introduction

This page is under development. As such it may not be helpful until it is near completion. For that reason, please don't link it on another page until then. To become complete it needs fair and balanced™ coverage of the SWORD programs.

Do feel free to edit this page to make it more complete and better organized.

The purpose of this page is to help an end user decide which SWORD program is the best for them. The first consideration is which programs are available for the user. This can be found at CrossWire's home page. Once the user has narrowed down which programs are available, the following can be used to focus on the best program.

It is recommended that each user try all the available programs. It is likely that one will resonate with the user and work best for that user.

Features Common to All SWORD Applications

For the most part all the SWORD programs have the same features.

• Use Unicode
• Released under an open source license
• powerful search syntax - wildcard, regex and often also clucene indexed searches (fuzzy and proximity searches + searches for Strong's, stemming etc) within preset and customised scopes.
• Strong's, morphological info, cross references and footnotes
• All frontends listed beleow are undergoing more or less active development.
• verse and block layout
• image support in GenBook type modules

Side-by-Side Comparison of Leading SWORD Applications

Module Support

RtoL Modules - Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and other modules Right-to-Left scripts are displayed from right-to-left.
Daily Devotions - While all SWORD applications support Daily Devotions modules, some open a Daily Devotion to the current day.
Book/Chapter Introductions - Some modules contain Book and Chapter introductions. Some SWORD applications do not handle them.
User Editable Module Content - The application supports the Personal Commentary and may allow other types of module creation.

Module Manager Support

Locked Modules (via GUI) - The application allows the user to supply the unlock key. The user does not have to manually edit the module's conf file.
Multiple Repositories - The application has an integrated module installer that allows installation from more than one SWORD module repository.
Archiving/Hiding - The application can remove and safely store currently non required modules or otherwise remove them from sight, keeping them available for future use.
Indexing - The application is able to index the module for fast search. This may be automatic and not require any user interaction (e.g. clicking a "Create Search Index" button).
New Content Available Immediately - Modules that are downloaded with the application's module installer are immediately available for use.

Image Module Support

• Non Genbook Image support - The application can use images in commentaries, dictionaries or Bible texts
• image formats - which graphic formats can be displayed. Some non CrossWire modules will use graphic formats which are not supported by all programmes.
• image resizing -

Windowing and Display

• Complex Scripts - Whether the application can correctly render complex scripts, provided an adequate font is installed. Complex scripts may include Indic and other Brahmic scripts such as Myanmar, Tamil, & Devanagri, as well as scripts that require contextual shaping such as Arabic, and scripts that require rendering in non-left-to-right order such as Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, & Mongolian.
• Ruby Layout - A not-yet-released SWORD 1.5.12 feature. Used for Japanese texts.
• Other - Distinctives regarding how the application presents the modules.

Search and Dictionary

Bookmarking, Tagging, Listing and Notes

Localization

Other