Go Bible

Go Bible

A screenshot of Go Bible
Original author(s) Jolon Faichney
Developer(s) Jolon Faichney
Initial release 2003-09-28
Stable release 2.4.4 / 2012-12-14
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.

Go Bible is not to be confused with the similarly named The Original GoBible®, a suite of personal electronic bible players from GoBible, LLC.

Features

Go Bible 2.2.6 featured:

Releases

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] .

Languages

Go Bible site

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 -

Other websites

Third-party developers[8] have already published Go Bible translations in the following further languages:

Mizo Go Bible
A screenshot of Mizo Go Bible.

Albanian - Armenian - Basque - Breton (NT) - Burmese - Cebuano - Chamorro (portions)[9] - Coptic[10] - Croatian[11] - Czech - Dari[12] - Esperanto[13] - Estonian[14] - Georgian[15] - German (Volxbibel translation[16]) - Greek[17] - Haitian Creole - Hebrew (OT)[18] - Hindi[19] - Hungarian[20] - Icelandic - Indonesian/Bahasa[21][22] - Japanese - Kabyle - Kekchi - Korean - Latin (Vulgate) - Latvian - Lithuanian[23] - Malayalam[24] - Manx Gaelic (portions) - Maori - Mizo[25] - Nepali[26] - Paite[27] - Pashto[28] - Persian[12] - Polish - Potawatomi (portions) - Serbian - Shuar - Slovak - Slovenian[29] - Swahili - Ukrainian[30] - Uma - Urdu[31] - Tamajaq (portions) - Tamil[32] - Thai[33] - Turkish - Welsh[34] - 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.

Unicode fonts

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.

Compatibility

Phones with limited memory

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.

Phones that check certificates

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.

Developer application

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.[35]

Another user has started a Go Bible Box.net account,[36] from which several more Go Bible collections may be downloaded.

The author has started a Go Bible Project on Google Code,[2] 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.[2] The latest source code is available from CrossWire, under the GNU GPLv2 license.[40]

Go Bible Creator is supported by the SIL Pathway project for publishing scripture.

Go Bible Creator is supported by the open source Bible editing application called Bibledit.

One member of the Theologische Initiative Freiburg[41] 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.

Distribution

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.[47][48]

Go Bible in Java ME emulators

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:[49]

It is even possible to run Go Bible in a Sony PlayStation Portable by installing a Java emulator for the PSP.[50] See:

Go Bible also works in the JVM called Esmertec Jbed,[51] which can be installed on various mobile phone platforms.

Similar products

See also

References

  1. ↑ Search results are limited to a maximum of 200.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "gobible - Go Bible MIDP Mobile Phone Bible Software - Google Project Hosting". Code.google.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  3. ↑ "Projects:Go Bible - CrossWire Bible Society". Crosswire.org. 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  4. ↑ "Release_Notes - gobible - This page lists release notes for Go Bible Core and Go Bible Creator. - Go Bible MIDP Mobile Phone Bible Software - Google Project Hosting". Code.google.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ This date was deduced from the Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ "Go Bible". Onthenet.com.au. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  8. ↑ "Links to other Go Bible sites - Go Bible Viewer". Sites.google.com. 2011-10-15. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  9. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  10. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  11. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "سایت مسیحی به زبان آذربایجانی". Gichurch.org. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  13. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  14. ↑ "International Bibles on the Mobile Phone : Home". Biblephone.net. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  15. ↑ "International Bibles on the Mobile Phone : Home". Biblephone.net. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  16. ↑ Volxbibel on the German Wikipedia
  17. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  18. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  21. ↑ "Go Bible Indonesia | Berbagai modul Alkitab untuk hp (Java, Symbian, Blackberry, Android, Palm) dan PC (e-Sword, EasyWorship, EasySlides)". Gobible.wordpress.com. 2012-10-31. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  22. ↑ "Alkitab untuk HP/Download - SABDA Labs" (in Indonesian). Labs.sabda.org. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  23. ↑ "International Bibles on the Mobile Phone : Home". Biblephone.net. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  24. ↑
  25. ↑ "Mizo Go Bible - Khampat Mobile Download". Apps.m.khampat.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  26. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  27. ↑ "Downloads". Zogamonline.com. 2013-11-20. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  28. ↑ "Pashto Bible for Mobile Phones". Pashtozeray.org. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  29. ↑ "mobi BIBLIJA.net - BIBLIJA.net za mobilne naprave". Biblija.net. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  30. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  31. ↑ "Urdu Mobile Phone Bible". Mojzat.org. 2010-09-09. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  32. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  33. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  34. ↑
  35. ↑ "The Mobile Bible" (in Dutch). Mobible.be. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  36. ↑ "Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces". Box. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  37. ↑ "Google Discussiegroepen". Groups.google.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  38. ↑ "Joseph Prince daily grace inspirations | Go Bible Indonesia". Gobible.wordpress.com. 2012-10-31. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  39. ↑ "Go Bible Spurgeon, Chambers, Tozer daily devotionals | Go Bible Indonesia". Gobible.wordpress.com. 2012-10-31. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  40. ↑ "Projects:Go Bible - CrossWire Bible Society". Crosswire.org. 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  41. ↑
  42. ↑
  43. ↑ "Mobile - Appsolutely Everything - worlds biggest open appstore". GetJar. 2000-01-01. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  44. ↑ "Mobile - Appsolutely Everything - worlds biggest open appstore". GetJar. 2000-01-01. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  45. ↑ "KJV Go Bible 2.2 handy download. Go Bible is a Free Bible viewer application for Java mobile phones (J2ME MIDP 1)". En.handybyte.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  46. ↑ "game-thing.com". game-thing.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  47. ↑ "International Bibles on the Mobile Phone : Home". Biblephone.net. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  48. ↑ "The Mobile Bible" (in Dutch). Mobible.be. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  49. ↑ "Go Bible Forum - Samsung IP830w Installation". Jolon.org. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  50. ↑ "Go Bible Forum - The requested discussion could not be found". Jolon.org. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  51. ↑ "J2ME Programming/Esmertec Jbed - Wikibooks, open books for an open world". En.wikibooks.org. Retrieved 2013-11-24.

External links