alerque
commented
10 years ago The "assumptions about preferred versions" would be something we need to add to the meta data about each translation. I propose an optional field in the version data file that suggests a translation code to switch to in the case of a verse lookup not available in the current one. For example the SBLGNT meta data file could specify an ordered logical fall-back preference of "WLC,LXX". This would cover both the two and three column use cases if the application logic know what to do with it.
- If available, select the first fall-back, if not, select the second, etc.
- Check if the selected fall-back is already open in another column of the app, if so select the next fall-back.
If you had just one original language column open and the appropriate sources available it would transition between Hebrew and Greek when switching testaments. If you had two open they might stick to the same language but switch to the appropriate translation instead of the source texts.
This would also be useful for cases where languages where some translations are incomplete. but mix-and-match between translations can be used to cover the whole Bible. In order to accommodate this use case I would also propose that the translation selection per column be "sticky" and retain it's original preference and visually indicate that an alternate is being temporarily displayed. When a navigating to a passage that is available in the original selection it should revert to that even if the alternate also has the passage.
This is a tricky bit of application logic but it should make the usage more intuitive for new users and more seamless for advanced users without adding any interface controls to clutter things up. The only decisions that would need to be made is the order of fall-backs (e.g. should the SBLGNT fall-back to LXX then WLC or WLC then LXX?)
dajare
I often have a 2-col display with OT-English (whatever version) + [WLC|BHS]. When looking up a New Testament text, it would be great to get the NT-English (same version) + [SBLGNT|TISCH|GWH] "automatically" - that is, replacing the original language version of one testament with the original language version of the now-loaded testament.
If this could be extended to 3-col (e.g. in NT, NASB+SBLGNT+NVV "morphs" to OT, NASB+WLC+LXX), that would be an enhancement of the enhancement!
Not sure how feasible this is (and might involve making some assumptions about preferred or default ancient language versions), but to my mind it would be a nice usability enhancement.