Subject: Re: A big idea

From: Mike Bossingham <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 10:10:57 -0400

Hi,

Thanks for all the comments and questions. Here I hope are some answers.

Sorry MAC users but the PC is the obvious choice for 95% of machines out
there are PC's with Windows. The language is C, used in a very simplistic
way - so I guess it would port quite easily. It does not use Windows fonts
- I doubted that it could handle fully aspirated and accented Greek - and
they certainly couldn't handle right to left fully pointed Hebrew. And so
the software has it's own font generator and formatter - this will make
porting easier. The data collection is through the standard windows
routines - I don't porting as too difficult. BUT are there not Windows
simulators on MAC's that could be used. Performance is not a problem as it
runs well on my steam driven 486 - yes people still use them.

I would see the Internet as a distributor of verses that would be
transferred, stored and maintained on local machines - rather than the
software running on the host machines itself. Not everyone has free local
calls!

My project is to develop, debug and make the software available. Other than
test data (most likely the papyrii of John) I have no intention of entering
large amounts of data. This is for the TC community to undertake. The
software is designed to allow different individuals to enter different
collations and then pool  them to be merged, approved and distributed by
editors. The software has two distinct areas - published data which is
fixed - unpublished local data which can be changed. It is up to those who
hold Copyright to catch the vision and join in. I see the project as more
akin to IGNTP than UBS or NA though.

My other intention is to write convertors and/or to publish an independant
transfer language so that data that already exists in digital form can be
checked and amalgamated withour rekeying. OCR is not yet an option - it is
not reliable enough from what I have seen.

I have seen the manuscript program and spoken to Bruce Morril about it. It
is a fine tool for collation. It does not clash though with the role of my
software which is to take the collations and apparatus and then provide an
attractive useful interface for those who wish to use such data.

I think an alpha version will be available in the autumn (fall) with some
test data - if anyone is at SNTS I will be around and willing to
demonstate.

Hope that answers your questions.

Regards

Mike Bossingham
Maidenhead by the Thames in England.