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Wednesday, May 12, 2004 |
For the Inductive Bible program (previously called eBible) I am working we are currently using MSDE (assuming no SQL Server available). Unfortunately, MSDE doesn't come with any management or query tools. However, there are some free solutions out there that fulfill the purpose and are worth checking out.
MSDE Manager
Includes both a .NET and an unmanaged version. This is free for personal use. The big plus of this tool over the others is that it includes database administration not just query capabilities so it is more than simply a replacement for query manager, offering more like the functional equivalent of Enterprise Manager. The company, White Bear Consulting, also provides versions as controls that can be bundled into you applications for a reasonable fee.
MSDE Query
The first tool I tried. It works much like SQL Server's query manager, allowing you to select the database and then execute queries against the database. It has an MDI interface so each query can be in its own window. Results are reported either as text, the default, or into a grid. Overall I would say this is a fully functional replacement for SQL Server's query manager. The same company also has a program similar to Enterprise Manager at minimal cost that is worth checking out if you need such a tool.
MSDE GUI
Based on the screen shots this looks like another viable option that includes source code so you could perhaps include it into your own application. Certainly worth checking out if you need to bundle something in your application.
There are a couple issues with our choice for MSDE. Firstly, I don't expect users of the software to have the most cutting edge computers or connections. MSDE is a 45 MB download which would certainly be a hitch to telephone modem users especially given that they are also going to have to download the .NET Framework redistributable. Secondly, it is not exactly clear whether we should install even when there is already a SQL Server installation in order to protect the copyrighted material that we include. Given our own MSDE instance we can control the security on the database but this would mean duplicate binary installs as well.
(Updated 5/14/2004 by adding reference to MSDE Manager which is currently my favorite because of the database administration functionality.)
11:33:30 AM
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Wednesday, December 31, 2003 |
Here is combination wiki-onenote pad. This is a rich client program not a web interface. I really like this idea for things like taking notes and interlinking these notes. This is partly what I want to be able to support with the Inductive Bible Study Software.
6:29:41 AM
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Tuesday, December 23, 2003 |
I (re)came across a couple bible specifications this morning while browsing around. The first was STEP (Standard Template for Electronic Publishing) which is described at http://www.crosswire.org/bsisg/. This, however, looks like a royal pain with lots of references to RTF. Yuck!.
More promising is the OSIS standard which I have mentioned before. This is an XML standard which makes it a lot more promising. Talking a second look at this I notice there are several more tools which look promising. The most interesting of these is the open source SWORD project, which is Bible software presumably similar to what we are creating. Unfortunately, attempts to get this running again on my computer failed but I need to figure out what the problem is in order to take a look at what progress has been made.
7:07:25 AM
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003 |
- Parsed and validated 8 new Bible Versions
- Imported 5 Bible versions into the database
- Created a project plan and posted it to Electronic Bible workspace on GotDotNet.
- Learned some interesting differences between version verse counts. E.g. NLT had 18 verses in Rev. 12 where most other versions place that "verse" at the beginning of Rev 13:1. 3 John has 15 verses in some versions and only 14 in others.
- Updated test scripts to use nUnit 2.1.
2:47:17 AM
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Sunday, July 20, 2003 |
I currently have two projects (eBible and Template Code Generator) in the works and I have not yet posted code for either of these because I am not sure what license agreement to use.
Currently I have assigned the GNU Lesser General Public License to the Template Code Generator but I believe I can change it (especially since there is not actually any source code there yet.) In spite of the fact that this license appears to be written in English I am having trouble understanding the full implications of the license.
- If I reference/link to the binary created within the Template Code Generator in order to create some other assembly/package can I distribute that second assembly/package under whatever terms I choose as long as I include the Template Code Generator source code and it's accompanying license agreement of the as part of the distributable for my the second assembly/package? In other words, if I don't wish to distribute the source code or binaries from the second assembly packet under the same terms (free binaries or source code) would that be allowed?
- Also, does the following quote from section 6 require me to re-distribute the .NET framework or VS.NET because I used these "utilities" to compile the binary?
'For an executable, the required form of the "work that uses the
Library" must include any data and utility programs needed for
reproducing the executable from it.'
I presume the term "executable" in the above sentence includes DLLs?
- If there is a snippet of code within the Template Code Generator that I share with other software that is not distributed as open source is that allowed?
- Assuming there is some part of the LGPL license that is not acceptable how would I go about modifying and still having it be acceptable to the OSI. More importantly, would this be a long an involved process or relatively simple.
Based on the complexities of this license (IMHO) I am tempted to simply post the code on GotDotNet where I can create any license agreement I like. (This of course is an advantage over SourceForge that I hadn't really considered in my original criticism of Microsoft creating workspaces on GotDotNet and it would not be surprising if this was the only reason Microsoft created the workspaces.)
11:24:35 AM
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Thursday, July 17, 2003 |
Here some Bible software for the Pocket PC that my brother recommended. I really like the startup page. Rather than requiring you to enter the book, chapter and verse it allows you to drill down by simply clicking the book then the chapter then the verse. Simply but a pretty significant UI helper given the Pocket PC.
Along the same lines, there is a WAP online bible at http://GodBib.com.
11:16:47 PM
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Wednesday, July 16, 2003 |
We have successfully assembled the NIV version of the Old and New Testaments. As we started working on the New Testament we encountered problems in our tests when verses were missing (such as Mathew 17:21). We decided that rather than throwing an exception we would log all cases of this problem to a file and check them individually.
The following is a list of the missing versus from the NIV:
Matthew 17:21, Matthew 18:11, Matthew 23:14, Mark 7:16, Mark 9:44, Mark 9:46, Mark 11:26, Mark 15:28, Luke 17:36, Luke 23:17, John 5:4, Acts 8:37, Acts 15:34, Acts 24:7, Acts 28:29, Romans 16:24
Today we had Lisa Hall join our team. We setup a Webex in order to handle the "pair" programming between all three people. In order to better facilitate team development we set up a project on GotDotNet called Electronic Bible. Nothing there yet but as soon as we have assembled the entire version we will post.
Next Steps:
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Store data in SQL Server MSDE.
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Prototype the user interface.
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Check if parser works for other versions.
12:00:06 AM
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Wednesday, May 28, 2003 |
Well we haven't met in just under a month now to work on the Inductive Bible Study Software (eBible). Tonight we got together and implemented the URI class. This class can take a reference and convert it to a URI for where the passage can be downloaded off the Internet. The progress over the past two months has truly been pathetic as we got side tracked with using the ICustomFormatter and IFormatProvider interfaces. We won't be meeting for a month unless we make special arrangments because I (Mark) am traveling for the next month. Next time we work on this, however, we should be at the point of writing a few verification tests and then being able to download the entire Bible.
12:25:59 AM
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Tuesday, May 13, 2003 |
Zondervan is in the process of releasing some new Bible Study software. It looks pretty comprehensive in terms of on-line content and supposedly even supports note taking. However, it doesn't seem to support inductive Bible Study or Manuscript study methods. Notes can only be attached to verses, for example, not to words. (Perhaps attaching to words is unrealistic?) Also, this seems to be desktop focused only so no Pocket-PC support yet (or even mentioned).
The price is pretty steep for the professional and scholar versions but the lower end versions don't seem too unreasonably priced.
2:33:59 AM
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Monday, May 12, 2003 |
This tool is implemented in Python and provides some searching and extracting Bible text functionality.
4:05:45 PM
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Wednesday, April 23, 2003 |
We were very surprised and disappointed to discover that the in-print version of the NIV is different from the version posted at BibleGateway.com. Here are a few examples:
- John 19:16 in the printed NIV is split in the middle with a title, "The Crucifixion." Surprisingly, the BibleGateway version of verse 16 is shorter and verse 17 actually starts in the middle of verse 16 of the in-print version. In other words, part of verse 16 is placed into verse 17. Yikes!
- There is a space before a comma following O LORD in the BibleGateway version of Psalm 5:1.
Now these may appear arbitrary but we just happened to run across these two during a cursory look last night. What concerns me is how many of these may be out there.
I took the time to submit feedback on the typographical errors here.
1:52:21 PM
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Thursday, April 10, 2003 |
Completed Through Tonight
- Download entire book of John
- Parse out book name and chapter number from a download of a chapter
- Classes currently created
- Reference
- Book
- BookName enumeration
- Chapter
- ChapterCollection
- Verse
- VerseCollection
- TableOfContents
- Formatter
- BibleDownload
Next Week
- Reorganize eBible.Reference class
- Add Implement TryParse() method on eBible.Reference class
- Download entire bible
- Add support to Formatter for extracting verses.
- Post stories to weblog
12:32:58 AM
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Sunday, November 03, 2002 |
On of the items that has puzzled me most about using XML as the storage mechanism for the Bible is that sometimes items overlap. For example, the words of Jesus begin in the middle of one verse and end in the middle of another and notes that may be made on a passage will often cross verse boundaries. So what you might ask. Well, XML doesn't support this. One tag cannot cross another tag. To deal with this issue you need Concurrent Markup which is not natively supported in XML.
One workaround can be found at Implementing Concurrent Markup in XML which links to a more detailed write-up by Patrick Durusau and Matthew Brook O'Donnell (I don't know these guys I am just pulling their info from the paper.) Unfortunately, based on my cursory read of this article, the solution is rather complicated to say the least. Presumably there is not anything better. My approach was to add a begin attribute at the beginning of a verse and specify how many words into the verse before the note/quote began. The end tag would work the same way. Not much of a solution I know but it wouldn't be that difficult to process either. I will have to investigate the specified concurrent markup solution further assuming that the OSIS schema doesn't handle it inherently.
10:16:14 PM
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Yesterday, I came across an article entitled Color Me Meaningful: A fresh approach to studying the Bible that appeared in the February 1986 of HIS Magazine. I am very excited to have found this because I used to have the original but after lending it to someone I never got it back. I think it is a great resource for introducing folks to the Manuscript Bible Study method taught by InterVarsity. Information about obtaining manuscripts is available here. A PDF description of the method is also available.
While coming across the Color Me Meaningful article, I also bumped in to information on the Inductive Bible Study Method or what appears to be now known as the "Communal Discovery Bible Study Method" (yucky name IMHO). Anyway, when I do an in-depth Bible study I combine these two methods together and it is by far the most insightful means of Bible study I have come across and it is great to have resources that I can direct people to for more information.
6:32:58 AM
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After many searches on several different search sites I failed to identify a website that had a Standard Bible XML schema defined. Today, however, Corey pointed out one out the Open Scriptural Information Standard (OSIS). On this site you can download both the 1.1 schema as well as a sample KJV Bible that uses the schema. Thanks Corey! This is a very exciting find for me. I only wish I could go to the conferences that are mentioned. There is clearly a ton of stuff here and I have lots to learn.
By the way, I came across a site that reviews Bible Study software today. Based on a cursory perusal, it is not very detailed but it at least lists the major parties involved.
6:28:21 AM
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Tuesday, October 29, 2002 |
Below is a dialog between Corey and myself regarding creating inductive Bible study software. This can also be found at XML Based Bible Study Tool. I have since moved the discussion to email until it resolves to a conclusion or plan.
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Message from Mark Michaelis
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2002 3:53 pm Post subject: XML Based Bible Study Tool
Hi,
After downloading BCS XML I was expecting to find the storage files to be XML based but I didn't see any files with XML text in them? Is the Bible, notes, etc stored in XML? Assuming the answer is yes and I am just missing something, is there an XSD schema for the XML?
Thanks,
Mark
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Message from Corey
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2002 7:10 am Post subject: XML is used, but stored in an object oriented database
The Bible files are in XML. The supporting files are in HTML. All the modules are condensed into an object-oriented database in binary format.
The OO database gives us better performance and allows us to unlock modules as needed. We cannot expose the XML in many cases because of copyright restrictions with publishers.
What are you trying to do? Maybe I can help.
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Message from Corey
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2002 7:13 am Post subject: Question for you
Mark,
Did you write C# Developer's Headstart?
Corey
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Message from Mark Michaelis
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2002 8:41 am Post subject:
Hi Corey,
In summary, I am looking to find or write some software that helps me study scripture. The key features I am looking for are the ability to create notes on selected text sometimes across verse markings, cross reference with books that have insight into the passage, similar functionality on the pocket pc. Hmmm... other stuff. XML seems key for the ability to add my own data items as the need and time arises.
I have searched Google for an Bible XML schema and have only come across XSEM. I did find he KJV in XML but it was pretty raw and it doesn't reference any schema. Do you create your own schema or is there a standard out there?
I have noticed your Precepts stuff with Word and this is similar to what I would like although I am not familiar with Precepts specifically. Ideally I am looking to reproduce some Inductive Bible functionality on the computer that I learned while in Intervarsity. I expect this to be a long term project, however. The current Word version in development at Microsoft seems to provide XML storage which I am very interested in.
I would really like the source code to be available and to be in managed code (C#/VB.NET) so that I could customize it. Obviously I could do this in C++ but C# is so much better I seldom use C++ any more. Open source would be cool too, although I don't have much experience with that.
'scuse the ramblings...
Is there stuff you are working on in .NET that I could help with as part of creating the software I am looking for?
Later,
Mark
P.S. Yes, I have written a few books... including the one you mention (which I co-authored, however).
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Message from Corey
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2002 9:11 am Post subject: Our goals are common. Perhaps we should work together.
Instead of starting from scratch with your ideas, perhaps we should work together in development. I have a couple other developers who help out. One in particular is chomping at the bit to move our code to C#.
I've been with this software since 1995. I stayed with the software through the closing of two companies that had acquired it. Most recently, I acquired rights to it (July).
We have a good user-base and have connections with Christian stores and such. We also have what many new Bible software companies lack- royalty content. Without the new royalty content, it is hard to serve the ministry well. I am developing the product further in an community fashion, but with the source closed. Open-source projects scare content publishers. You will notice that the Sword project on sourceforge has very little modern content.
My goals are to keep the price of the product to a minimum, so that we can serve Christian workers throughout the world. We have no one on full-time staff. At this point, we all work part-time as volunteers. Our income to the company is very low, making enough to pay bills and royalties. I've been volunteering and paying out of my pocket for about 1 1/2 years.
If you are ministry-minded and want to be involved in a software project for eternity, let me know. You will be a welcomed addition to our team.
Corey
12:45:55 AM
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Sunday, October 27, 2002 |
This morning I contacted NIV and TNIV regarding the possibility of getting files (XML preferably) of the Bible. I have tried contacting TNIV before but I was told, "No." I don't expect much change but I am trying anyway. I do hope to get something from NIV at least.
6:33:18 AM
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Tuesday, October 08, 2002 |
For some time now I have been considering the creation of a software program for studying the Bible. However, before I begin I would like to build on the work of others or perhaps just find a tool that meets my needs. It is too late now to detail what I discovered tonight except to say that I looked as XSEM which is an XML Schema for encoding the Bible. I also investigate the Bible Companion for XML software which is reviewed at http://magicref.tripod.com/bibrev/biblecompXML.htm. The Bible Companion for XML software demo that I downloaded was lame since the trial version didn't appear to support note taking. The forums on their website, however, indicated a product for Precepts study using word which is intriging and I would like to investigate it further in the future.
2:01:52 AM
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© Copyright 2004 Mark Michaelis.
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