On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 11:57 PM, Karl Kleinpaste <k...@kleinpaste.org> wrote: > Jonathan Morgan <jonmmor...@gmail.com> writes: >> I tend to dislike software that forces me to search in certain ways: >> whether it's "You must select the language before we show you what's >> available" or "You must select the type of book" or "You must select >> the publisher's repository", there will be some times when this >> matches the way I want to search and what I'm looking for, and some >> times when it does not. > > I find it an extraordinarily odd perspective, that knowing what type of > book you're looking for is not a normal, all-the-time prerequisite to > finding what you want. Does anyone ever ask a salesclerk, whether human > or automated, "show me the book selection, but I don't even know what > I'm looking for, much less the language in which it's printed, least of > all the author or publisher"? > > Since this is Bible study software, how would it ever be, that someone > looking for new books in our environment would not know if he's looking > for a Bible, or a commentary, or something else? > > If my imagination is insufficient about this problem, feel free to say > so. But the idea that you have to specify that you need English or > Suomi or Caribbean Javanese texts seems to me to be a "level 0" kind of > requirement.
If I'm looking for the ESV, it's entirely irrelevant which language it's in (yes, I know it's English, but rather than think it's English I could just type ESV). Similarly, if I'm looking for a particular author I want all books by that author. They have probably written only in one language, so the language choice is irrelevant. If I'm looking for a particular subject, I may be able to filter down to that subject and then scan through the results irrespective of whether they are in multiple languages or book types. > In any event, as a current use case, Xiphos' module manager provides > module listings both per-category as well as per-availability (that is, > updates and yet-uninstalled content). Under each per-availability case, > there is only a language distinction, on the idea that you still want to > hunt down modules in a language you can read, but there is no type > (Bible, commentary, genbook, ...) distinction. Users have found it > productive to have the ability to locate everything available in > English, for example. Indeed. >> Interesting thoughts. However, my expectation comes not from Amazon, >> but from other Bible software I have used. If I want to know which >> books are available for e-Sword, I go to the e-Sword website. If I >> want to know which books are available for Logos, I go to the Logos >> website. If I want to know which books are available for CrossWire, I >> go to the CrossWire website. It doesn't list Dore Woodcuts, so I know >> it doesn't support it. [I do actually know that both e-Sword and >> Logos have resources which aren't sold by the respective company, but >> with Logos it's a minority and with e-Sword my impression is that they >> are mostly breaking copyright so I don't bother looking]. Because I'm >> interested in Bible software, I'm usually willing to spend the time >> looking. I'm not sure that everyone is. > > I think the problem is that the model breaks down in the face of our > intent for multiple publishers. Amazon gives us the > one-place-in-the-world model. You describe Logos and eSword in the same > motif. But that's expressly not what we're up against. We're trying to > create an MxN crossbar, users x publishers. We're not (and never will > be) in bed with publishers in the same way that Logos and eSword are. > > We may need another model entirely. Agreed, which is why I suggest such a different model which aims to still have as many of the advantages of the one publisher model as it can. Jon _______________________________________________ sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel@crosswire.org http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
