Frontends:Diatheke
Contents
What is diatheke?
Diatheke is a very simple command line interface (CLI) front-end to the SWORD Project's Bible software library. Essentially, "diatheke" is the stuff contained within the file "corediatheke.cpp" in the apps/console/diatheke directory of the SWORD source tree. Corediatheke.cpp contains only one function that is intended to be called from any program using diatheke, and that function performs exactly one lookup in the SWORD library per call. Examples of calls would be a query for a verse (or verse list/range), a search, a request for a list of modules, etc.
Where's the name 'diatheke' come from?
Diatheke means 'testament' or 'commandment'. And diatheke (the program) was originally a command line application. commandment... command line app... It's a pun.
How is diatheke useful to me?
Probably it isn't, but there are a number of front-ends to diatheke (yes, front-ends to a front-end) that are of use. These include:
- diatheke/TCL: a BibleBot for eggdrop that interfaces with diatheke/CLI
- diatheke/CGI: a Perl/CGI interface to diatheke/CLI
- HANDiatheke: a Palm PQA interface to diatheke/CGI
- ActiveDiatheke: an ActiveX control (.OCX) interface to SWORD
The above four are no longer under active development.
How do I get diatheke?
- This section needs updating.
To get the very latest version, grab the SWORD source tree from our SVN repository using the URL: https://crosswire.org/svn/sword/trunk
e.g. $ svn checkout https://crosswire.org/svn/sword/trunk sword
If you don't want to use SVN, you can try grabbing a recent release from ftp://ftp.crosswire.org/pub/sword/source/
For diatheke/CLI and diatheke/CGI you can download version 4.0 from:
- ftp://ftp.crosswire.org/pub/sword/frontend/diatheke/diatheke-4.0-win32.zip (Windows binary)
- ftp://ftp.crosswire.org/pub/sword/frontend/diatheke/diatheke-4.0-src.zip (source)
For diatheke/TCL and HANDiatheke you can download version 2.0 from ftp://ftp.crosswire.org/pub/sword/frontend/diatheke/diatheke-2.0.tar.gz.
For ActiveDiatheke you can download a preliminary version from ftp://ftp.crosswire.org/pub/sword/frontend/diatheke/ActiveDiatheke.zip.
How do I use diatheke/CLI?
Calling diatheke without any parameters will result in the command line syntax help being output to stderr.
The query_key (-k) must be the last argument because all further arguments are added to the key.
Examples
The following are a few examples of calling diatheke from the command line: (booknames can be abbreviated, providing this avoids ambiguity)
| Retrieve Acts ch 10 | diatheke -b KJV -k "Acts 10" |
| First five verses of above | diatheke -b KJV -m 5 -k "Acts 10" |
| Acts chapters 1 and 2 | diatheke -b KJV -k "Acts 1-2" |
| Genesis 1:1 | diatheke -b KJV -k G 1:1 |
| Galatians 1:1 w/ Strong's (if available) | diatheke -b KJV -o n -k "Ga 1:1" |
| I Corinthians 1:1 (also "ic 1:1") | diatheke -b KJV -o n -k "1c 1:1" |
| Revelation 1:1-1:7 | diatheke -b KJV -k "Rev 1:1-7" |
| Revelation 1:1 | diatheke -b KJV -m 1 -k "R 1:1-7" |
| Revelation 1:1,1:3,1:7 as HTML (w/ <p>, <i>, etc. tags) | diatheke -b KJV -f HTML -k R 1:1,3,7 |
| verses with "my people", quotations optional | diatheke -b KJV -s phrase -k "my people" |
| verses with "skin" and "bones" | diatheke -b KJV -s multiword -k skin bones |
| verses with "church" or "assembly" | diatheke -b KJV -s regex -k "church | assembly" |
| Strong's Greek 3056 | diatheke -b StrongsGreek -k 3056 |
| Definition of "horn" in Two Babylons | diatheke -b 2BabDict -k horn |
| Entry for John 1:1 in Family Bible Notes | diatheke -b Family -k Jn 1:1 |
| Entry for "Lion" in Scripture Alphabet Of Animals | diatheke -b SAOA -k "Lion" |
| Entry for "olive-tree" in Easton's Bible Dictionary | diatheke -b Easton -k olive-tree |
| Matthew 24 from Westcott Hort Greek NT transliterated into Latin script | diatheke -b WHNU -t Latin -o mn -k "Mt 24" |
Diatheke output
Output formats
Valid output_format values are: GBF, ThML, RTF[1], HTML, OSIS, CGI, and plain text (default)
Output encodings
Valid output_encoding values are: Latin1, UTF8 (default), UTF16, HTML, and RTF.
Limitations
There is no command line option in diatheke to choose variants. For any module that has variants, diatheke outputs the text for the primary reading only.
Example: Here is a verse from the WHNU module which contains a primary and secondary reading.
Matthew 1:9: οζιας δε εγεννησεν τον ιωαψαμ ιωαψαμ δε εγεννησεν τον αχας αχαςδε εγεννησεν τον εζεκιαν
Observe the following:
- The primary reading here is the word "αχας", which (as it happens) is repeated in this verse.[2]
- The secondary reading is the next word "αχαζ", but this is not included in the diatheke output.
Note:
- ↑ RTF output currently omits a font color table, so red letter text does not get displayed in red. See [1].
- ↑ Because of minor errors in implementing variants, there is no space before the next word "δε".
Tools that use Diatheke
AutoKey script for The SWORD Project
Ryan (Adyeth) has developed a script for the AutoKey 0.6x utility to do paste Bible text given a reference. It works with OpenOffice, plain text editors, or any other Linux program where you might need to paste scripture passages. It requires Diatheke in order to function. You can download it from his website.
