A screenshot of Go Bible |
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| Original author(s) | Jolon Faichney |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Jolon Faichney |
| Initial release | 2003-09-28 |
| Stable release | 2.2.6 / 2008-03-31 |
| Development status | Active |
| Operating system | Java Platform, Micro Edition |
| Size | 1.5MB (typical for a whole Bible) |
| Available in | English, and with translated user interfaces |
| Type | Bible Study Tools |
| License | Freeware, New BSD License |
| Website | Go Bible |
Go Bible is a free Bible viewer application for Java mobile phones (Java ME MIDP 1.0 and MIDP 2.0). It was developed by Jolon Faichney in Surf City, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, with help from several other people who assisted in making versions for other languages and translations. Go Bible is installed like any other midlet by copying the .jar and .jad file to the cell phone by USB or Bluetooth. The English KJV Go Bible 1.1 can also be installed using WAP download.
Contents |
Go Bible 2.2.6 featured:
Releases subsequent to 2.2.6 are hosted on the SVN server for the CrossWire Bible Society. Compiled versions of Go Bible Creator can be downloaded from the relevant Google groups.[2]
In July 2008, Go Bible was adopted as a software development project by the CrossWire Bible Society.[3]
The news page on the Go Bible website provides some more details. For more detailed development history up to March 2005, see [7] .
Including the King James Version which heads the list, Go Bible is already available in 23 languages. These include:
English - Afrikaans - Arabic - Chinese - Danish - Dutch - Finnish - French - German - Hungarian - Indonesian - Norwegian - Portuguese - Romani (Gypsy) - Romanian - Russian - Spanish - Swedish - Tagalog (Filipino) - Ukrainian - Vietnamese -
Third-party developers[8] have already published Go Bible translations in the following further languages:
Albanian - Armenian - Basque - Breton (NT) - Burmese - Cebuano - Chamorro (portions)[9] - Coptic[10] - Croatian[11] - Czech - Dari[12] - Esperanto[13] - Estonian[14] - Georgian[15] - Greek[16] - Haitian Creole - Hebrew (OT)[17] - Hindi[18] - Hungarian[19] - Icelandic - Indonesian/Bahasa[20][21] - Japanese - Kabyle - Kekchi - Korean - Latin (Vulgate) - Latvian - Lithuanian[22] - Malayalam[23] - Manx Gaelic (portions) - Maori - Mizo[24] - Nepali[25] - Paite[26] - Pashto[27] - Persian[12] - Polish - Potawatomi (portions) - Serbian - Shuar - Slovak - Slovenian[28] - Swahili - Ukrainian[29] - Uma - Urdu[30] - Tamajaq (portions) - Tamil[31] - Thai[32] - Turkish - Welsh[33] - Wolof - Xhosa -
These lists are likely to grow as more people become involved in using the developer application.
Many of the Go Bible translations still use English for the Bible book names, and for the user interface, though that is now starting to change as developers become more familiar with the features of the developer application.
Go Bible uses the Unicode fonts installed by the mobile phone manufacturer. Some translations may not display correctly on all phones due to missing code pages or individual codes. Also, there are problems with some Sony Ericsson phones with regard to displaying Arabic script and other right-to-left languages. Rendering such languages properly depends on having a correct implementation of the bidirectional algorithm as well as glyph shaping.
It is possible to divide Go Bible into several smaller collections so that the JAR files can be installed in mobile phones with limited memory. For some models, splitting into Old Testament and New Testament is sufficient. For older models, splitting into files smaller than 1MB, 512KB, 256KB or 128KB may be necessary. Go Bible 1.0 is suitable for phones with 64KB JAR file limit.
Go Bible applications are not digitally signed. Some phone models by default will not install unsigned applications. In many such cases, it is usually possible to find a phone setting to change to accept unsigned applications.
The author has also provided a developer kit called Go Bible Creator. This enables further translations and language versions to be generated by users. Go Bible Creator takes as data input Bible files in Theological Markup Language (ThML) or Open Scripture Information Standard (OSIS). From version 2.3.2, the ability to process Unified Standard Format Markers (USFM) has been added.
Go Bible Creator supports two useful additional features:
Go Bible Creator was used successfully by the author of the Mobile Bible site in Belgium to create several Go Bible collections in various languages.[34]
Another user has started a Go Bible Box.net account,[35] from which several more (>58) Go Bible collections may be downloaded.
The author has started a Go Bible Project on Google Code,[36] but for discussing the Go Bible source code is Go Bible Dev.[37]
Go Bible Creator is not limited to making Bible collections. It can also be used to create other types of e-Book, such as an electronic hymn book (words only) or daily devotionals.[38][39]
The original source code for both GoBibleCore and GoBibleCreator was available online under the new BSD license.[40] The latest source code is available from CrossWire, under the GNU GPLv2 license. [41]
One member of the Theologische Initiative Freiburg[42] has written software scripts to convert Zefania XML Bible modules into the ThML format for use with Go Bible Creator. Though the description is "Converts a Zefania XML bible modul to a SWORD -modul", the download includes a tool for Go Bible. The host language is German.
Go Bible is listed in a number of free and open source software distributor sites, such as:
Go Bible is also being used on a number of Christian websites.[48][49]
The Go Bible application can be previewed in the following Java ME emulators:
It is also possible to run Go Bible applications on a Pocket PC by installing the following:[50]
It is even possible to run Go Bible in a Sony PlayStation Portable by installing a Java emulator for the PSP.[51] See:
Go Bible also works in the JVM called Esmertec Jbed [12], which can be installed on various mobile phone platforms.