From: Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally@...>
Date: 2006-12-13T07:44:06+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] - Bible 1.0.1 - A bible reference parsing and text retrieval tool

Wow this looks great!  Thanks for building this.

Any plans to add local lookup (i.e., through one of the many Bible
data files formats like Pradis or STEP)?  I would possibly be
interested in helping with that if I can carve out some time for it!

--Jeremy

On 12/12/06, Justin Bailey <jgbailey@gmail.com> wrote:
> All,
>
> I'm proud to announce the release of Bible 1.0.1, a library for parsing
> Bible references and retrieving the text from the web.
>
> == What is it?
>
> Mainly, an interactive application for retrieving and displaying books,
> chapters, and verses. Once installed, type "bible" to start an interactive
> session. A wide variety of references are supported:
>
>   Gen 1 # first chapter of Genesis
>   Genesis 1 # Full names supported
>   1 Kgs 1 - 2 # 1st and 2nd chapter in 1 Kings
>   Luke 15:8-10 # Specific verses from chapters supported
>   Luke 15:1-7, 11-32 # Multiple, disjoint verse specification
>   Matt 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5: 31 # Multiple books together
>   Gen 1, 3 # discontinuous chapters
>   Gen 1 - 2:3 # Span chapters, to a specific verse
>
> Besides the abbreviations listed above, most common names for books can be
> used ( i.e. "1 Kings", "Matthew", etc.). Other common means of separating
> chapters and verses may also be used (e.g. "Lk 15.11-32", "Genesis 1; 3",
> etc.). My motivation for writing this library was to be able copy verse
> references off web pages and paste them into the console with little or no
> change, so the parser is pretty flexible.
>
> Three translations are supported out of the box: Revised Standard Version
> (the default), New American Bible, and Douay-Rheims. To access these, enter
> :rsv, :nab, or :dr at the console.
>
> The script can also be passed various arguments to look up a reference,
> print it, and exit. Run "bible --help" to see these options.
>
> == How do I get it?
>
> The easiest way to get it is via a gem download:
>
>   gem install bible
>
> The project is hosted on rubyforge at: http://rubyforge.org/projects/bible/
>
> == Other Notes
>
> If you run this on Windows, and have the win32console gem installed, output
> will be nicely paged. Book titles, chapters, and verses will also be bolded.
> Essentially, the text is a lot easier to read with the gem installed. Any
> one who wishes to get it working on *nix systems is welcome to contact me
> with a patch or even suggestions.
>
> == Limitations
>
> The library includes a definition of the books in the bible, the chapters in
> each book, and the number of verses in each chapter. This allows references
> to be parsed accurately but it makes supporting multiple Bible "schemas"
> difficult. It will accept all deutero-canonical books ( i.e. Catholic
> Bibles) but it the verse references for older translations, like the
> Douay-Rheims, might be off. I'd like it to support all versions eventually (
> e.g. Vulgate, Septuagint, NIV, etc, etc) but that's not the case right now.
>
> == Anything else?
>
> The interactive application is the main point of this gem, but it does
> include a library that could conceivably be used in other applications.
> Also, all text is scraped off various web sites so do be nice - no need to
> download the entire Bible daily or anything.
>
> Bug reports, feedback, and suggestions are welcome. God Bless ;)
>
> Justin
>
>