Re: [be] Sharing notes with paratext?

[Teus Benschop]

On 12/07/2011 01:55 PM, David Gardner wrote:
> OK, pt used mercurial as far as I know, and BE uses git, but there are
> compatability layers around. The bigger problem is what the differences in 
> formats are, which I have no idea about. How compatable are the 2 systems?
> Does anyone know?

I have never looked at the notes format of Paratext, and how these are
stored in mercurial. Probably the systems are completely incompatible.
And whether the Paratext people would like it if an external program was
going to write to their notes repository, I very much doubt. They are
more likely to fear, with great justification, that this external
program, not fully knowing the layout and interconnections in that
repository, would cause fatal crashes in Paratext, and thus would give
them a support problem.

However, leaving aside the notes system of Bibledit-Gtk, and the notes
system of Paratext, there is another way for teams to collaborate on
notes even while some of the members of that team use Paratext, and
others use Bibledit-Gtk.

A solution could be to use the Consultation Notes that come with
Bibledit-Web.
http://sites.google.com/site/bibledit/web

Those using Bibledit-Gtk would connect to Bibledit-Web, so that
Bibledit-Gtk scrolls to the right verse when the user opens a note in
Bibledit-Web.

Those using Paratext install Bibledit-Paratext.
http://sites.google.com/site/bibledit/extra/paratext
This would cause Paratext to scroll to the right verse when the user
opens a note in Bibledit-Web.

Consultation Notes would be created online, so that whoever has access
to the Internet can view the notes, create new ones, respond to them,
select parts of them, and do all the other things that can be done with
these notes.

Many people do not have good Internet. Therefore it is also possible to
operate these notes, to a limited degree, by email. And if somebody
makes a comment on this note, it is possible to set up certain users for
receiving an email upon that.

We have people in our team who do not always have access to email. But
they have enabled email on their Nokia feature phone, and are thus able
to partake in the discussion that is done online in Bibledit-Web. They
can receive the messages on their phone, and they can respond by phone.

Thus if the consultants is willing to work outside of Paratext, in
Bibledit-Web, on the notes, and is happy with the scrolling effect, and
your side is happy to work in a similar way, perhaps something can be
thought up.

Teus.