A while back I showed how to search for the root of a Greek word in Accordance. This is something that couldn’t be done in Logos 4 unless one was willing to follow a rather convoluted and error-prone workaround, as Mark Hoffman pointed out in a follow-up post where he compared the ability to search for Greek roots in Accordance, BibleWorks and Logos. Today I want to revisit this question, since Logos 5 includes the ability to search for the root of a word right from the contextual menu. The following video explains how it all works.

Note also that, as Rick Brannan rightly points out in the comments, the Bible Word Study guide in Logos 5 now includes a Root section. This means that you can right-click on a word and choose to run this very helpful automated tool and it will display all the roots for you.

 

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I promise no pun was intended, but look what happened

 

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The personal testimony of Michael Surran, author of meBible, got me thinking. There seems to be a common denominator among many Bible software developers: they started to develop their applications for their own use. They felt a need and decided to build something that would meet that need. In some cases, users came as an afterthought, as it were.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that we are more likely to appreciate the usefulness of an app if we have also perceived and felt as ours the need that gave rise to its development. It also means that the closer we follow the thought patterns of the developer, the more natural and intuitive we’ll find the app. I think this explains, to a certain extent, why “intuitive” is such a subjective and hard-to-define term.

 

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The following video is a good-humoured response to the latest Accordance Podcast (Lighting the Lamp #80) on Flex searches in Accordance 10.

In a good-humoured way I show how Dragon Dictate for Mac (version 3) can do what Siri is unable to accomplish: open Accordance, set Flex search as the default, build a search, run it, and see the analysis of the search. All done by voice, without moving a single finger!

All you see is real and doable, but it would not have been possible without the help of scripter extraordinaire Joe Weaks.

 

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Rick Meyers, author of e-Sword, has kindly agreed to answer a few questions in the wake of the release of e-Sword HD for iPad. He’s extremely busy at the moment, so I doubly appreciate his willingness to make himself available to us. What follows is an unedited version of our “conversation.”

Bible Software Review: What led you to create an iOS version of e-Sword and why is it only available for iPads?

Rick Meyers:

Mobile/Tablet                          O/S Share
Market Share of iOS                  63.5%
Market Share of Android         21.0%
Market Share of Java ME            9.3%
Market Share of BlackBerry       1.8%

BSR: I can hear the voice of many Android users asking themselves, We’ll we ever see an Android version of e-Sword?

RM: MySword is pretty good and has access to all of the many user group modules.

BSR: I know quite a few people who get confused with names like e-Sword, MySword and The Sword Project. Is there any relationship between e-Sword and the other two?

RM: You forgot SwordSearcher Only our relationship we share in Christ!

BSR: e-Sword has a very large and active user base. In fact, one of its great strengths is the impressive amount of user modules available in every conceivable language. How is all this going to fit with the current ”official-modules-only” approach of e-Sword HD?

RM: Version 1.0 cannot have everything!  I am currently working with Josh Bond and others to integrate the massive user group module library.

BSR: Given the fact that e-Sword has traditionally been considered freeware, how did you come to the conclusion that you were going to charge $4.99 for the iPad app? Is this a change in your philosophy as a Bible software developer?

RM: e-Sword is still free, so no change there.  Everyone who begged me to create an iPad app said they would pay for it.  So I made the large investment in development costs to create the app, thus I am holding them to their word :-)

BSR: Since Bible Software Review has a certain academic edge to it, could we expect to see any Greek and Hebrew resources soon? What about the ability to search Greek and Hebrew?

RM: I already have Greek texts working quite nicely, but there is even more that I wanted to do with the texts so I chose to hold off until the next update.

Thank you very much!

 

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The popular e-Sword program is now available for iPads. This first release includes a good number of the features available in the desktop edition, but only official modules can be added to the app at this time –although no Greek, Hebrew or foreign language Bibles are yet available–, and costs $4.99. The interface will look quite familiar to long-time e-Sword users.

The following video is a quick and dirty presentation of the program (make sure to watch it in HD!).

 

 

Note that the video does not show off all the features available, just a few of them.

 

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