Bible Software Review Weblog

We Have Moved!

2006-06-24T10:03:00.000+02:00

Please update your bookmarks and/or aggregator feeds. The new Bible Software Review Weblog is now located at:

http://www.bsreview.org/blog.

See you there!

Update on New Website and Weblog

2006-06-01T17:24:00.000+02:00

Well, friends, the all-new BSR website is just a few days away from making its debut :-) I hope you'll enjoy it.

As for the blog, I have decided to drop Blogger and use Movable Type instead. I have given a lot of thought to these changes, and I believe it's the best way to go. The downside is that I will probably lose the comments (not sure yet) and my co-blogger (Ken Ristau), but even so there is much to gain.

Movable Type is a very professional publishing platform that includes, among other things, two key feature (to me at least!): the ability to assign each entry to one or more categories, and a very powerful management system.

Accordance 7

2006-05-24T19:42:00.000+02:00

The new version of Accordance Bible Software has just been released. You can read all about its new and enhanced features here.

Update: I thought I was going to be the first in announcing it, but I now see that Ken beat me to it :-)

Review of Tagged Greek Texts

2006-05-24T19:28:00.001+02:00

In tandem with the release of Accordance 7, I thought it would be appropriate to release a review of the morphologically tagged Greek texts (PDF) available on the Scholar's Collection 6.9 CD-ROM. I have reviewed the texts in comparison with BibleWorks 7 and Logos Bible Software 3. My review concentrates on the databases themselves rather than the actual programs but nevertheless there are some points at which I do comment on all three new programs. I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comment thread. These are happy times for fans of Bible software!

Update: In response to criticism I received in the BibleWorks forum, I have made corrections to my review to better communicate my points regarding their implementation of morphological databases. I have also updated my review to reflect the additional information provided by Ken Penner, who is presently working on the Logos Pseudepigrapha. I apologize for some of my imprecise language and regret any unintended misrepresentation of the implementation of morphological databases in BibleWorks 7. At the same time, I stand by my assessment as it is now written and am disturbed at the treatment I have received in the BibleWorks forum (to be distinguished from BibleWorks, LLC with which I have no qualms). I believe that posts in the forum overstate the nature and extent of my mistake and attempt to insulate BibleWorks from my otherwise fair and responsible criticism.

Bible Software Precursors

2006-05-13T13:08:00.000+02:00

In a sense, all those who have been significantly involved throughout History in doing the kind of tasks that we now so easily perform with the help of a computer and a Bible software package, can be truly considered as "precursors."

Alexander Cruden, though perhaps less known than James Strong, is certainly one of them. His Complete Concordance to the Old and New Testaments is still in use today (I have a printed copy in my library), and his work is the subject of a nice article written by Roger G. Baker for the latest edition of the SBL Forum. Check it out.

On Comparative Reviews

2006-05-11T17:21:00.000+02:00

Writing general product reviews is a worthwhile exercise, but writing comparative reviews is even more fun. However, it can also be a bit of a headache. No matter how hard you try to be objective, fair, and all the rest of it, you are probably going to leave just about everybody unhappy ;-)

Despite the difficulties, I do have a few comparative reviews "in the back burner." Hopefully they will elicit some interesting exchanges (they always do), and help improve our general understanding of some of the key areas of Bible software. At least I hope so.

A Graphical Search

2006-05-10T20:40:00.000+02:00

For a long time I have wanted to run a graphical search based on a comment made by H. Van Dyke Parunak in his article "Computers and Biblical Studies," ABD, vol. I, pp. 1112-1124, where he talks about a search for "all verbs that occur within three words of the phrase 'in Christ,' without intervening verbs."

Today I decided it was about time to put some Bible software programs to the test, so I fired up Accordance, BibleWorks and Logos to perform this particular search, using the different graphical search engines available in each package. The goal of this little exercise was simply to find out which one of them offered a cleaner, more intuitive way to build the search. Here are the results (in alphabetical order):

Accordance seems to be very straightforward, and I didn't need to refer to the online help at all.

BibleWorks took me a bit longer, because there are different ways to "filter out" intervening words, and I had to look them up.

Logos' search was more involved, since I had to specify the Greek words and their morphology independently. I also needed to refer to the help files.

As for the results, Accordance and BibleWorks agree in returning 34 hits. Logos, on the other hand, finds only 31 verses (missing 4 true occurrences and returning one spurious hit). The reason for this is that Logos doesn't really count words, but characters. So, even though I specified 0-3 intervening words, the program in fact takes it as 0-21 characters (i.e., each "word" would amount to seven "characters"). For Greek, that includes accents and breathing marks, not just letters. Therefore, this explains why in one case four intervening (shorter) terms were returned as hits, while in four other cases three intervening (longer) terms were missed altogether. I have been told that the new Logos 3, with its ability to perform syntactical searches, handles these types of queries in a better and more powerful way. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for my copy, so I haven't been able to make use of the latest version. I'll be glad to update any relevant info once I get it. BTW, I want to thank Rick Brannan and Vincent Setterholm for their help in explaining the behavior of Logos's graphical search in this particular instance.

Now, I want you to be the judge. Apart from your own familiarity (or lack of it) with any of these three programs, which one of the screenshots strikes you as been the most "user-friendly"? Evidently, there's more to these searches than just what is displayed here (number of steps required, dialog boxes, and so on), but I'm more interested in letting you see the interface of the graphical query and interpret the information shown in each particular case.

Update:

- I forgot to explain that this search looks for all those verbs that not only occur within the set distance but also precede the phrase 'in Christ.'

- I hope I did not give the impression that I was looking for the more aesthetically appealing screenshot. What we are concerned about here is clarity and ease of use.

- Vincent (Setterholm) sends me a screenshot with a somewhat more organized layout, which I gladly reproduce below (slightly reduced in size). Note that some unnecessary proximity operators have been removed, and the morphological codes changed to full descriptions.

I am also told that the new database engine and syntactical tools in Logos version 3 do not have the same limitation noted above and, consequently, return the exact number of intervening words specified by the user.

Update (May 11):

- Rick Brannan blogs about syntactical searches, and the ways in which they can take us further than the current morphologically-based queries when it comes to doing exegesis. It's an interesting piece, but I am clearly at a disadvantage here, since I won't be able to speak intelligently about these new syntactical tools in Logos 3 until I actually use them. Got to be patient... Meanwhile I guess I should say that morphology and syntaxis must always go hand in hand, and the line between the two is often blurred. In fact, some morphologically tagged e-texts already take a more functional approach, and by doing so take us closer to what would be a typical syntactical analysis. But I digress, I'll get back to this fascinating issue in a future review. One thing is true, though: we have come a long way since Parunak's article was written.

- David Lang also interacts with my search over at Accordance blog, describing the steps that lead up to the construct window I showed above and commenting on some of the ways the resultant data can be handled by Accordance to enhance our research of this typically Pauline expression. I appreciate it, since I had no space to dwell on the implications of the search.

- Now, is anyone from BibleWorks going to give us some insights? I really wish they would set up an official blog ;-)

Logos Bible Software 3

2006-05-01T21:01:00.000+02:00

The new revision of Logos Bible Software is out. Enhancements are too numerous to jot them down here, so your best bet is to check out this page.

I must confess that I'm looking forward particularly to the new Syntax Search feature (i.e., the ability to search syntactically tagged Greek and Hebrew texts for words, phrases, clauses, and so on). You can expect to see a full review here at BSR in due course.

PocketBible 3

2006-04-26T09:10:00.000+02:00

Laridian has just released PocketBible 3.

Some of the new features included in this version are:

Color highlighting - mark the text of any Bible or book with 16 colors, underlining and strike-through. List the verses you have highlighted, all at once or by color.
Continuous synchronization - Bibles, commentaries and other verse-based reference books always stay on the same verse.
Categorized Book Chooser - your PocketBible books are now divided into Bibles, Commentaries, Dictionaries, Devotionals and Other to make it easier for you to find and select the book you want.
Context-sensitive tap-and-hold menus - a faster, more convenient way to copy, highlight, search, add notes, set bookmarks, change books and more.
Find your notes - two new ways to locate verses where you've attached a note: search by any word or phrase or list all your notes.
New Verse Chooser - choose book, then chapter, then verse from a list. Sort books in alphabetical or biblical order.
Continuous text - no more page/chapter breaks.
Gesture-based navigation - tap the top of the screen to scroll up one line, tap the bottom to scroll down one line; tap left to go back one page, tap right to go to the next page.
DailyReader features have been combined into PocketBible 3 - Now you can track your progress through Bible reading plans and devotional books (available separately) right in PocketBible. And instantly reschedule if you fall behind.
Open more than two books at once
Windows Mobile 5 softkey support

A demo version of the product is available, and the upgrade costs $10.00. All PocketBible Bibles, reference books and DailyReader books have been updated to support the new features of PocketBible 3, and current users of PocketBible do not need to repurchase their books.

Incidentally, Memorize! for Pocket PC has also been updated to version 1.5, which adds the ability to import from the new Bibles and support for the Windows Mobile 5 softkeys.

BiblePro Review

2006-04-20T13:52:00.000+02:00

A new review is available. I have also updated the links in the Companies, Retailers and User Groups sections.

Light Blogging

2006-04-18T19:07:00.000+02:00

I'm sorry about not being able to do much blogging lately. This will all change when the new website and weblog are in place. You may not notice much difference at first (well, you will if you are a frequent visitor), but most changes are going to affect the nuts and bolts of the site.

I think I'll adopt a minimalist (no theological pun intended ;-)) approach to the outward design, and focus on making the whole thing more user-friendly and efficient. As usual, I'm having lots of problems trying to make different browsers behave the way they should -- my goodness! haven't they heard about standards? --, but I think we'll get there in a few more weeks.

In the meantime, thanks again for your patience.

Boot Windows XP on a Mac

2006-04-05T20:45:00.000+02:00

As a followup to my previous post on MacWorld's dual boot project, Apple has released a free, public beta version of its software called Boot Camp that allows Intel Mac users to run Windows XP natively on their computers. The software will be integrated into subsequent versions of Mac OSX. It's official folks. This is not emulation software. You can run Windows XP just as you do on a PC. The upside for the Mac is tremendous. As it seems doubtful that Mac will ever let it's software legally run on PCs, buying Mac will be the only legal way to run Windows XP and OSX natively on the same computer.

New Online Library

2006-04-04T17:01:00.000+02:00

Check out this new online resource. It's a new product done by Logos, and looks quite promising. SeminaryLibrary.com provides a remote library viewer to thousands of searchable, digitized, hi-resolution books.

I got to know about it by reading Jim West's blog earlier today.

Windows iMac

2006-03-18T04:54:00.000+01:00

Tyler Williams at Codex Blogspot points out an article on MacWorld's successful project to dual boot on the new Intel Mac. Obviously, this is a very significant development for Bible Software. Will PC Bible Software companies decide not to pursue Mac versions if Windows runs on a Mac? Will more PC users switch to the Mac knowing they can still run their favourite Windows programs on the same computer? There is clearly a ways to go before the dual boot will be common place but it does add a new dynamic into the mix.

More Logos-related News

2006-03-17T14:00:00.000+01:00

Logos Bible Software has been named a Best Christian Place to Work by a nationwide survey published in Christianity Today. You can find the details here.

On the other hand, The Mercury News (San Jose, CA) includes a short interview with Scott Lindsey, ministry relations director for Logos, as part of their coverage of Techvangelism '06, a cool event coming up this weekend in Silicon Valley, CA.

And this is all happening when Logos 3.0 has just turned into RC1 (Release Candidate 1)...

Logos 3.0 On The Road

2006-03-09T21:17:00.000+01:00

Logos just announced that they are doing a road trip across the United States "to focus attention on technology for Bible study and to introduce Logos Bible Software 3."

Daniel Foster emails the details:

We'll be putting 13,000 miles on the Bible Road Trip Bus, a 37-foot RV that's been "wrapped" to become a moving billboard. We'll visit 60 cities in 31 different states over a four-month period; each weekday evening there will be an event at 7pm at a host church or school in that metropolitan area.

This will be a great chance for people interested in computer-aided Bible study to come see what it's all about.

You can get all the details here.

Well, what can I say? I'm really wowed!

Learning Curve vs. Complexity

2006-03-06T20:42:00.000+01:00

David Lang has an interesting piece where he tries to draw a clear distinction between what some people term "a steep learning curve" and the fact that specialized Bible programs require quite a bit of learning if one wants to make the most out of them. He suggests that the "steep learning curve" should be applied only when performing even the most basic features of a program becomes hard, while the obvious complexity involved in becoming a power user is just an indication that there is still a lot to be learned, but should not be taken, in and by itself, as a disadvantage or an insurmountable difficulty.

Reading his post I was reminded of my own experience with what I sometimes call "the triple crown" (Accordance, BibleWorks and Logos). I have been a user of these three excellent programs for quite a while. I've seen them grow and become standards in different areas, but the one thing they all share in common is that they have become very complex packages. Any given user who is familiar with one of these will most likely think that the other two have a "steep learning curve" if/when they are exposed to them. As a matter of fact, they do things differently, and we may think one is more intuitive than the others. True. However, the problem seems to be, to a very large degree, that these are very complex programs, with hundreds of different features, options and set ups. No wonder there will be some sort of learning curve to face at the beginning. This is inevitable. What really matters, as David rightly points out, is that simple, basic things should be easy to figure out.

This year has seen the release of BibleWorks 7, while Accordance 7 and Libronix Digital Library System 3.0 will also hit the streets in the coming months. You will find full reviews here at Bible Software Review in due course, but I can assure you that these programs have grown to be so large, that a single review cannot do justice to the tremendous amount of features found in each one of them. I'll probably try to write a series covering different aspects/areas/uses, so that you can begin to appreciate how powerful and complex these packages really are. So we'll have to revisit the whole issue of "learning curves," but the fact remains that the balance between complexity and power on the one hand, and ease of use and intuitiveness on the other, is very very hard to achieve. We can (and should!) expect fairly common and simple tasks to be easily done, but be ready to read some manuals or watch some video tutorials if you really want to master these "beasts." There are no shortcuts to becoming an expert user. It'll take some time and effort. That's for sure.

Upcoming Changes

2006-03-06T19:05:00.000+01:00

My post on the future of BSR elicited quite a few favorable comments, which I really appreciate very much. Your feedback and support seems to back up most of what I am hoping to accomplish in the months to come.

I have a lot of reviews on my plate (and I mean a lot). Some really terrific programs will be reviewed here during 2006. These are indeed exciting days for Bible software! There is such a plethora of applications that programmers are constantly improving upon earlier versions and features. This does not only apply to commercial packages, but to shareware and freeware programs too. I can only agree wholeheartedly with H. Van Dyke Parunak when he asserts, "Bible software has come a long, long way (...) In comparison with the state of the field 25 years ago, there are no bad decisions today. We would have given our eye teeth for any of the offerings now available." ("Windows Software for Bible Study," JETS 46/3 - Sept. 2003, p. 465). We simply cannot afford to approach the Scriptures without some degree of familiarity with the electronic tools available today. To quote Parunak again, "Bible study software has reached the stage of maturity where every student of the Bible should become acquainted with it." (ibid., p. 495)

Concerning the technical side of BSR, I think the planned improvements will make navigating and searching the site a lot easier. I am not sure when we'll be ready to implement all of the proposed changes. They are already underway, but I rely heavily on my older son's PHP and CSS skills, and he is extremely busy at the moment. He has already started the project, but we'll have to sit down and plan things carefully over the next few weeks. To put it in laymen's terms, Bible Software Review will turn into a huge collection of interconnected databases, where everything is properly categorized (text, graphics, video, etc.) and indexed. This way, contents will be more flexible, dynamic and customizeable, both for me and for you, the visitors. Once all the databases are in place, my son's programming skills should allow for some on-the-fly graphics, queries, and other cool things we've talked about. Expect a few changes in the look and feel of the website too :-)

So, thank you all for your patience. We'll get there, God willing.

SwordSearcher 4.8

2006-02-12T20:24:00.000+01:00

A new point release has just been made available on the website. The full list of bug fixes and enhacements is found here. As usual, this upgrade is free for all 4.x registered users. New content, however, is only accessible when ordering an upgrade CD. The newly added materials included in the CD-ROM edition are Keil and Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary, Lightfoot's commentary on the Gospels, Finney's Systematic Theology, and Bounds on Prayer.

Bible Software Review Turns Two!

2006-02-07T08:00:00.000+01:00

February 7, 2004 marked the beginning of this wonderful online venture. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, and hope you have too!

Let's raise our cups in a toast to Bible Software Review: Happy 2nd anniversary! Don't worry, the drinks are on me ;-)

Accordance Atlas Version 2

2006-02-04T10:09:00.000+01:00

OakTree Software announces that version 2 of its excellent Accordance Bible Atlas is available.

Here's the list of the new additions:

* High resolution backgrounds: 10 times the resolution in the areas of greatest interest which now lets you zoom in to see the shapes of hills and valleys such as the hills around Jerusalem, instead of square pixels.
* Larger area which now covers more of Italy, Greece, Egypt, and the Persian Gulf.
* Modern boundaries of all the states in the region, and major modern cities.
* Addtional sites, routes, and regions.
* New pre-defined layers showing every available route and region.
* Two new topographical backgrounds.

For a short article on how to use the Atlas for Bible study, see here.

The Future of BSR

2006-02-02T12:05:00.000+01:00

When I first started Bible Software Review and this weblog, back in February 2004, I really had no idea whatsoever about how it was going to turn out. I honestly thought it could fill a void in the Bible software scene, and time has shown this to be the case. So I can only thank you enough for dropping by so frequently, for your encouragement, your constructive criticism, and for letting me feel and know that you appreciate what is being done here. I am very thankful both to Bible software developers and general users for the positive feedback. It is YOU who have helped make BSR what it is today. But he have only begun to scratch the surface...

I've learned a lot in these couple of years, and I think it's time to add some of the features I have always had in mind, but never managed to implement. Now that there is a steady flow of well over a thousand visitors every week (and figures continue to grow), I need to make some decisions about the future. Up until now I have considered BSR more as a hobby of mine and a service to the general and academic community of Bible software users than anything else. However, as the workload has increased, so has the amount of time and money I have invested. So much so, that I cannot afford to enter into our third year of existence without making some changes.

First things first. I am committed to this project and do not contemplate the idea of quitting. However, having said that, we are facing a croosroads. Is BSR going to keep a "low profile", taking care of only the basics, updating stuff and posting new articles and reviews as (limited) time permits? Or is it going to introduce many new features, post lots of hot information and keep up with the "latest and greatest"?

I am all for the second option, but it will only be possible if we introduce some paradigm changes. Perhaps the most obvious one would be to start accepting paid ads from Bible software vendors. This would not necessarily affect the independent style of general articles and detailed reviews, but it would certainly help pay a number of expenses (more server space, broadband, etc.). I could have done so a long time ago, but thought it would be better to have an ad-free website for as long as I could afford it.

As for short-term enhancements, I am planning a complete revamp of BSR. We'll definitely use CSS and PHP before too long. This will mean a new UI, but also a much greater flexibility in content management. I would also like to open new sections (e.g., video tutorials and/or video reviews), a forum, a donwload area, and many more goodies. All this, coupled with more frequent updates and reviews, would hopefully increase the usefulness of the site and the number of visitors.

But before I move on, in one direction or another, I'd like to know your opinion. Readers are welcome to leave their comments here. Software developers are invited to email me their proposals on paid adversiting and related matters. Once I gather all that information and think some more on the matter I'll let you all know what road we're going to follow from now on.

Thank you!

Bible Software Developers' Blogs

2006-02-02T11:56:00.000+01:00

From now on, you will find a list of various Bible software vendors' blogs on the right hand side, just below Recommended Links. Please note that these are corporate blogs. If you feel other weblogs should be added to the list, kindly let me know. Thanks.

New Accordance Blog

2006-02-02T06:37:00.000+01:00

The employees at Oak Tree Software have decided to join the blogosphere with an official company blog. David Lang writes in the inaugural post that it's their "goal to post new blog entries about two to three times a week." Check out the new Accordance Blog!

Keyboard Shortcuts and Productivity

2006-01-26T07:15:00.000+01:00

I couldn't agree more with Joe Weaks when he asserts that "the real key to fluent productivity at your computer is to work towards never taking your hands off the keyboard."

These words, of course, are written in the context of Apple computers and Mac OS X, but I was immediately reminded of how true this is for me when I am in front of my computers (any of them), using Bible software (of any kind). It may be because I learned to type when I was a teenager, or perhaps because I was pretty adept at working with MS-DOS. Whatever the reason, I get much less tired and I do a lot more - and a lot faster! - when I don't have to take my hands off the keyboard every so often and start using the mouse. Come to think of it, one of the features I really like in a Bible software application is the ability to search and jump from one place to another by simply using some handy shortcuts.

Naturally, I know a number of people who feel just the opposite. But the beauty of keyboard shortcuts is that you are not forced to use them, and besides they never get in the way. So I appreciate it when software developers not only pay attention to drag and drop, context menus, and the like, but also to good old keyboard shortcuts. And my wrist appreciates it too!