Wide Margin will not be attempting to compete with Xiphos on features. Or to attract the advanced user.

It is designed to be quick and simple for the beginner. Which just wants to read the bible or quickly find a verse or passage.

I did not feel this could be achieved within the Xiphos project. Xiphos big advantage (its impressive feature set) made it incompatible with the goals of Wide Margin as a project) If you want evidence of this look at karl’s explanation of why quick search can not be included by default. Then look at wide margin which has quick search by default, and yet faces none of the problems karl uses as reasons it can not be done. (it builds the index client side on first run very quickly)

I wish Xiphos all the best for the future and I do not believe the two project compete as they target different types of user.

Measured startup times, on my T60p laptop:
Cold basic start (cleared memory/buffer cache), invocation to splash: 9.3sec.
Cold full start, invocation to main display and shutdown: 33.9sec.
Warm start, invocation to main display and shutdown: 8.1sec.
If that’s too slow for you…sorry, live with it or move on. Compared to the startup times for other heavyweight systems (e.g. Libronix), Xiphos is quick.

There is assist over and over in how to get fast search. We have considered beginning to distribute pre-built indices with some modules from Xiphos repo, but there is a serious concern about this because a lot of the aggregate Sword Project userbase uses older or lightweight computers, often with weak/slow network connectivity and less than huge storage, and sucking down and storing an additional 8M of index for the sake of the bigger, more detailed, better-annotated Bibles, commentaries, and general books is a large, dark question, esp. going into 3rd-world environments.

Claims of a cluttered UI make my Hmm Detector go haywire. The main window has one set of 4 buttons in upper left to select what shows in the sidebar. Other than that, the only buttons are tabs and navigation selectors. It has a fixed orientation of 3 subwindows, optionally becoming a 4th only if the user chooses to put the previewer under the Bible. This is not cluttered by anyone’s definition. The manual is included (Help – Contents) in all distributions and is reasonably complete. If you consider Xiphos cluttered, I expect you must also consider e.g. e-Sword cluttered, considering that its basic, initial layout is similar, though e-Sword has stayed stuck in a late-’90s UI design otherwise.

Regrets if you’re disappointed. We can hope you’ll be happier with your own solution.

1. Once I had installed it, it came without any bible modules by default, and I could not figure out how to add them. I had to do a google search just to figure out how to do it.

2. Search was really slow. I don’t care if you can make it faster by building an index. The default experience is slow, very slow and the average user will never ever learn how to speed it up. I have been using it for over a year and I never knew you could speed it up until I read this.

3. Load times are slow. It takes ages to startup.

4. User interface is very cluttered, buttons and frames everywhere. I had to turn to the internet to work out how to do the simplest of tasks.

I have been working on a much simpler and faster alternative its called WideMargin. It’s still in the early stages but already implements as you type searching (in most cases will find what you are looking for before you finish typing). It starts instantly and features a tabbed based interface and global search / navigation bar that anyone who has used a modern web browser will instantly understand.

The code is hosted at here: https://bitbucket.org/trampster/widemargin/wiki/Home

It still is sometime before packages are available, and the feature set will initially be very limited. But for what I need (fast and simple) it is perfect.I am already using it for my bible software needs.

At the moment, you may find the ABP (Apostolic Bible Polyglot) as a worthwhile module for its Strong’s encoding and in-the-text notation of original Greek word order. There is a companion bible ABPGRK (Greek).

If you feel there are awkward points about Xiphos, you are more than welcome to post feature requests for improvements.

Xiphos’ method for Strong’s display is also enabled on the context menu. The very recent module OSMHB (open scriptures morphological hebrew bible) has Strong’s numbers. And some of the Greek NTs also have them as well, including TischMorph and others.

There has been an open feature request for a long time to have Strong’s display on mouse hover, but it has not yet been acted on because it represents a need for serious internal restructuring in order to support such a thing.