Bible Software Review Weblog

Earlier this year, Southwestern Journal of Theology carried a review by Scott Callaham, where he deals specifically with the use of Accordance running on a PC under emulation.

MacSword, a Mac OS X incarnation of the Sword Project, released version 1.1.3a just a few days ago. Apart from the usual fixes and improved stability, the program makes it possible to search for Strong's numbers. For a full update history, see here.

Turpin Library (Dallas Theological Seminary) offers an interesting overview of Bible Study Tools Online. It contains brief analyses of both online web sites and offline personal computer programs, as well as some practical advice on the indicated use of each of the available resources for studying the Bible.

Let me say, as an aside, that linking to different reviews, articles, projects, etc. is not to be understood necessarily as an endorsement by Bible Software Review of the opinions and/or viewpoints expressed by their respective authors. The links are offered "as is" (sounds familiar?), in the hopes that they will be helpful to a reasonable amount of our readers.

With the new Starter Library 5-Pack on sale for $50.00, there seems to be little excuse not to try Logos Bible Software. This Starter Library comes with five full packages, and includes a CD with video tutorials produced by Morris Proctor.

Looks like a good deal, and I think it is a great idea for Bible software companies to have an inexpensive "entry package" that people can actually use to get acquainted with the product.

To all the crowd of Firefox users out there: SuperBibleToolbar is a cross platform toolbar for Firefox 0.9-1.0 on Windows, Linux and Macintosh. It is an open source development based on the original Bible Toolbar, by Jamison Stepan, which allows for quick searching of some well-known on-line Bible sites.

It does seem useful, though I haven't had time to install the browser yet... I know, I know...

After quite a bit of work, a review of the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible has been posted today. I do hope you like it. It's good stuff, and most certainly not for the faint-hearted.

There is a beta version of the new Bible.org Toolbar available for Internet Explorer users (other browsers will follow soon). This toolbar is designed for enhancing the browsing experience of those visiting the well-known Bible.org website, and includes features like pop-up blocking, highlighting, web searching, zoom in/out, and more.

Wieland Willker notes that the excellent New Testament Transcripts Prototype (see earlier blog entry here) has been updated. Additions include the books of Acts and Romans, as well as the manuscripts P45, P66, P75, 01, 02, 03. Check it out!

Many people had said so already (Sean Boisen, Peter Kirby, and Eric Sowell, among others). I have now tried it myself, and it's been (sort of) love at first sight. Much, much better than IE. I like its simplicity and speed, and the way it handles unicode. Got a few extensions, a few themes, and enjoyed myself. And, of course, tried the SuperBibleToolbar. There are lots of things that can be done to customize it (e.g., see what Sean Boisen did). Unquestionably my default browser from now on (on a PC, that is).

For Mac users there is an interesting article comparing Firefox and Safari (thanks to Leonard Durrenberger for the heads-up). Tough decision!

Update (December 14): One of the cool things about Firefox is the ability to write keywords instead of full URLs. I am happy to see that if you type "bsreview" (without the quotes), it'll take you to Bible Software Review. Great!

Zack Hubert has put together a fantastic new tool that will appeal to students of the Greek New Testament. This GNT Browser includes the whole text of NA26, complete parsing of every term, graphics with statistical information, definitions, grammar info, and much more. It is still under development (the author welcomes suggestions from users), but looks really great. The Greek displays beautifully on a Mac with OS X.

I like the user interface very much. In fact, James Tauber, whose MorphGNT is the textual source of this project, comments that this site "blew him away." A wonderful site indeed. (Thanks to Carl Conrad for drawing our attention to it on B-Greek).

Now that a few reviews have been posted, I would very much like to have your feedback. Here are a couple of simple polls that will help us all see how we are doing. Current results are always available, so that anyone can see how the voting is going. Thanks for your cooperation!

UPDATE: I have had to disable the ability to view the results due to the inappropriate ads displayed on that site. Don't worry! I will make the results public in due course. Sorry about that.

For some more detailed feedback, feel free to use the Comments feature or email.

Here's another couple of polls. These polls work with a javascript code, and all modern browsers should display them fine. Needless to say, you have to have JavaScript enabled in order to see them! I'm still trying to adjust the code and see what works best on the blog, so please excuse any glitches. I hope to have everything fixed by the end of the day. The votes keep counting though, even if the display is not quite perfect yet. Thank you!

BTW, the polls are from Web Poll Central, and are absolutely free. Should any sponsoring ads appear, I have no control whatsoever over their content. So, if I see anything inappropriate for this blog, I will be forced to drop them immediately.

You may have noticed that there is now a Google search box on the sidebar of this blog. This means that you can conduct general web searches without leaving this site. But the most obvious use is to limit your search to the bsreview.org domain (which includes both the website and this blog). Don't underestimate the power of Google searches. You can easily find anything that has been posted here. If you want to know more about the search syntax, check out this page.

I hope you like this new addition and find it useful. I'm already using it as a very convenient way to find things!

UPDATE (09:30 PM): I should have posted this 12 hours ago, but Blogger hasn't been working properly due to a misconfigured router. Seems to be working again...

An interesting discussion has been going on over the past couple of weeks or so about the name "biblioblogger" and its different alternatives (see this useful summary).

I have deliberately stayed out of this exchange of proposals (until now...). The reason is quite simple: I, too, am one of those "boring and conservative" guys (Mark Goodacre's description) who's well served by the current term. As is often the case, the use of a word, not its etymology, is what counts in the final analysis. I don't know where this label came from, but I know what it means. And so does everybody else in this part of the blogosphere. So, what we've done here is take up a word, strip it of whatever original sense it had (if any), and give it a new meaning. What's wrong with that? The Bible is full of examples of this sort of thing. Various practices and words were taken up and given different meanings in Old Testament and New Testament times. Not that I would want to build a biblical case for the use of the term "biblioblogger" :-), but I certainly don't have anything to object to its widespread use.

Sarah Lind, Editor of TIC Talk (Newsletter of the United Bible Societies Translation Information Clearinghouse), reviews Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible in the latest online edition. If you read my own review alongside hers, I think you will agree that they complement each other rather nicely. We both agree that the new material offered by SESB is good news indeed, and that there is quite a bit of room for improvement in future versions.

Some of her comments about the Help system reinforce my own feelings about it. Bible software companies in general should realize that good (read clear and comprehensive) online helps and printed manuals are key elements to a successful use of the software. Detailed examples of all the different search capabilities available are a must, IMO.

To write good helps may not be easy (it isn't) or cheap (it isn't), and it may delay the release date (it often does), but it's just something that has to be done. The more complex a program gets (and there are quite a few of them out there that could well be classified as "sophisticated"), the more necessary it becomes to have a full, trustworthy, user-friendly guide to help the user overcome the dreaded "learning curve." That's what I think, anyway.

What was that saying? Ah, yes "If you can't beat them, join them!" Okay, then, here is my list of what I consider to be my top five blog entries of 2004, in reverse chronological order:

Why I Still Write Bible Software Reviews
The Need for Publishing Standards
The Future of Electronic Synopses
Just How Important is a Printed Manual?
Features versus Content

It's not that I think those are necessarily the best - in fact I had a hard time dropping a few more posts from the original list - but they are good representatives of some of the concerns we've been addressing over the past ten months.

Nota Bene - This is a totally subjective, biased, self-indulgent, unscientific sampling. YMMV (Your mileage may vary).

All the recent polls (here and here) are still active and waiting for your vote. They are absolutely anonymous, and will only take you a moment. Thanks for your participation!

I've noticed that the number of votes is still very small when compared with the average number of daily visitors this blog has. One reason may be that some people are not aware of its existence, as they keep moving down the page when newer blog entries are posted. Therefore, I have decided to move each one of them in turn to the sidebar for a few days. This way they will be a lot easier to spot, and hopefully many more folks will be able to participate.

I wish you all a very blessed Christmas. Enjoy this wonderful opportunity to share with your loved ones the true meaning of this holiday!

I'll be back soon. There are a number of reviews in the works, which I hope to complete within the next couple of weeks. So stay tuned!

PAZ/PEACE/EIRHNH/SHALOM

I have posted an interview with Craig Rairdin, President of Laridian. The interviews section of BSR has proved to be a very popular one, so I hope you'll enjoy this new addition.

I didn't want to finish 2004 without posting a new review of one of the most popular Bible software programs for handheld devices. You can now read a review of PocketBible and see for yourselves what it has to offer.

Thank you for your support throughout 2004. I hope to see you again in 2005! Meanwhile, I make mine the words of Bengel: "Apply thyself wholly to the text. Apply the text wholly to thyself," and hope we can all resolve to practice them with God's help.