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ARJWright's Avatar
Posts: 861 | Thanked: 734 times | Joined on Jan 2008 @ Nomadic
#77
Originally Posted by Flandry View Post
That's probably true, but it depends a lot on what features are needed.

Because i'd be happy with a clean, attractive display of the text with a very simple interface to highlight portions and add annotations, the browser seems like it might be the shortest route to a very polished product. If i was trying to compare texts side-by-side and do a lot of dictionary lookup, i'd definitely not waste effort with a browser.

The thing is, i get hung up on the portability of the annotations. I don't want to lose them on my desktop or in a few years as tech changes, and that's the real challenge. A layer that sits on top of a standardized browser platform seems like it has a decent chance of being portable to desktop, and future tech...

Incidentally, that's why i asked ARJ about whether he thought the ideal interface for a maemo device used just a single display (rather than split screen): if the IT is too small to effectively use a split screen, anyway, it makes the browser approach more appealing.

Edit: the above was written before the last post. It sounds like you're confirming that the IT is just too small to justify a split screen UI?
Getting annotations/bookmarks/etc. trapped in an app is the wrong way to go with a Bible app IMO. I've ranted on that enough times, and still haven't been able to convince publishers/bible software makers that people want their data apart from the content they offer.

Its not so much that its too small - you could shoehorn it in there as Rapier as done. The thing is, is that UI the right one for what we'd propose is a reason for having a bible reader. I don't think that it is.

Something more along the lines of a tap-and-hold on a term/verse with a context menu that comes up that says "Define | Compare | Bookmark | Annotate" and then moves to a new screen that has either a definition from a comparative source, cross references (from an index or comparative source), an input bookmark interface, or a simple notes interface (possibly with a tag field so it can be searched on later).

That's at least how my brain seems to work, along with many others who use digital bible devices/editions.