KIYUT just released Alkitab Bible Study 1.1, an open source and free desktop bible study software. It supports single/parallel view, commentaries, lexicons, dictionaries, glossaries, daily devotions, etc. It also comes with powerful search capability. It features rich and user friendly bible software study tools.

Features:
- View Single/Parallel Books or Bibles
- Cross Reference and Search
- Commentaries
- Strong's Concordance and Morphology
- Lexicons/Dictionaries/Glossaries
- Daily Devotions

Product Page
http://www.kiyut.com/products/alkitab/index.html

Screenshots Page
http://www.kiyut.com/products/alkitab/screenshots.html

Developer Page
http://www.kiyut.com/products/alkita...per/index.html

Can you give a quick run down on the differences between this software and the free e-Sword software?

__________________
--Laura

O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
Jeremiah 10:23 (NKJV)

Since it will be non objective opinion (I am the author of Alkitab), so I will just give general view between Alkitab and e-sword. Other who are not related to both software, should be able to give more objective view

- Both are free in term of money (no need to buy/purchase)
- Alkitab is open source
- Alkitab run in all popular operating system (Windows, Unix/Linux, Mac OSX)
- Alkitab is new software just created since 3 month ago, e-Sword is already mature and stable application
- Both offers various ways to interact with bibles eg: parallel view, strongs, morphology, searching, etc
- The GUI or interface is different, although both software allows people to interact with bibles

Cheers
Kiyut

I'm always in favor of open source, being a computer person. Can you tell me the difference between the Alkitab, JSword, and the base Sword project, all of which are open source? In looking at the three, it appears (correct me if I'm wrong) that Sword contains an interface on top of its Open Source Sword project Bibles/dictionaries and that JSword and Alkitab also sit on top of the same Bibles/dictionaries. What was your motivation for writing yet another sword interface (yasi )? Is there a problem with Sword and JSword or some additional functionality they did not have that you wanted?

__________________
--Laura

O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
Jeremiah 10:23 (NKJV)

Sword and JSword is basically the same, the difference is that Sword is impelemented using c/c++ programming language and JSword is implemented using Java programming language.

Both Sword and JSword is just library no GUI at all. They are is a programming library that allows easy access to the underlying book/bibles/modules. So basically many GUI front end are utilizing both library. The GUI is separate project eg:
Sword
- GnomeSword (for Linux/Gnome)
- The Sword (for Windows)
- etc
JSword
- BibleDesktop (Windows, Unix/Linux, Mac OSX)
- Alkitab (Windows, Unix/Linux, Mac OSX)
- etc

Alkitab is run on top of JSword and there is nothing wrong with JSword/Sword, it is a great software and run well. The reason alkitab is created::
- I am more proficient with Java rather than c/c++
- I am trying to modernize the GUI front end (eg: dockable and sliding panel, have plugins supports, etc). However to achieve this. there was some design decision that against BibleDesktop design goal. One of BibleDesktop goal (from the mailing list) is to run on any possible platform and with low spec comp requirement. Due to the low spec comp requirement, some advanced functionality is very hard/could not be implemented. In contrast Alkitab is new project (started april 2008) and trying to achieve modern GUI and require higher spec comp requirement to achieve that design goal. Alkitab require at least java 1.5 o higher, whereas BibleDesktop require java 1.4 or higher.

If you compare it side by side, Alkitab GUI is almost similar to BibleDesktop GUI, although there are also some differences. Because if that GUI is work well and intuitive why change it. I only add things to achieve modern GUI. And to do that a lot of refactoring/rewrite is needed (besides the design goal). So it much more easier to create a new project (Alkitab) rather than extending BibleDesktop. The GUI code is completely a rewrite and implemented differently although the UI look similar.

Note: Alkitab is not competing project with JSword, it is even utilizing JSword as the base. It is only alternative front end (GUI) for JSword BibleDesktop.

Cheers
Kiyut

OK. Thanks.

__________________
--Laura

O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
Jeremiah 10:23 (NKJV)