Hi all.

I'd like to discuss Palm OS-compatible Bible software. Here are a few I found:

My Bible by Laridian (v. 3.0 just release) - I use this one.

BibleReader by OliveTree - Another venerable program. It's been around a long time.

Bible With You by GMP Soft - I don't know much about this program or the company.

QuickVerse by Parsons Church Group - Never heard of this program until I searched for "palm bible software" just now. Anyone know anything about the program and/or company?

There's also the free option if you want the King James Version or a few other public domain translations/paraphrases. Many of them can be loaded in your favorite ebook reader.

When I get home from work this evening, I'll talk about the features I like in MyBible.

There is also Bible Reader from AsiaSoft and Bible+.

I use MyBible, Bible Reader from Olive Tree and Bible Plus.

MyBible - I mainly had so that I could have Bible verses with their Daily Reader program, But I like the upgrade in version 3 and really like having the English Standard Version with extensive footnotes which includes cross references.

Bible Reader/Olive Tree - I like the "fullnes" of this program, while it feels like a work in progress it has the most features in one program. I use this version now for my Greek study with Gramcord (more than just a Greek text but has UBS definitions and word usage guide).

Bible+ - I am tinkering with this program and like the open source potential. I have a study Bible on my PC that I can transfer to this program (with a lot of work on my part) and this keeps me interested in this program. This program is definitely for those who like to tinker with putting together their own Bible texts and know some programming IMHO but has some great feature like the dual screen.

I really haven't tried any other programs but I hear Bible Thumper is really good (KJV only) and has a lot of resources. The QuickVerse version is based on the PC version. I think it may be good, but other programs do what it does already. Interesteing note - QuickVerse was orginially programmed by Craig Rairdin (got bought out several times and he no longer is connected with it) who now brings us MyBible.

My 2 1/2 cents worth.

Pastor Mike
Aurora, CO

Check out this site: http://www.handheldministry.org/palmos.html
It has a really good review of many Bible Programs for Palm.

Pastor Mike

Why a specific Bible reader? The bible is just a book, and you could read it in Palmreader, Weasel reader, or any other of those programs.

Although some (and yeah, I would be one of those 'some') would say there is more to the Bible than just words, that it is more than just another book, that is another discussion for another thread and perhaps another forum! As a pastor once told me "Stick with the book son!" So I will try stay on topic...is that possible for me?

But, as a book, which the Bible certainly is, it has some distinctives that make a special program for it's viewing very helpful.

SIZE: It's a big book...Tolstoy can't even compete. In fact, it's 66 or more books (depending on whether your's has the Apocrypha...forgive my misspelling...included) collected together, some only a page long, some over a hundred pages long, depending on the size of the font...and how many pretty pictures you have!

INDEX: It has an extensive indexing system which is used worldwide to reference specific passages. You want to have a quick and easy method of moving from Leviticus 12:14 to Philemon (no, he's not a Philadelphian transplant to Jamaica!) verse 17...some of those pastors can move quick during their sermons, and you've got to keep up or else! Isn't that right Pastor Mike...and the other Pastor Mike!? Most of these programs probably have a method of keeping your most recently visited passages 'cued' up so you can flip quickly between them. I know Biblereader by Asiasoft does this (BTW, it has a smaller footprint than some, around 61k. I think the Olivetree prc is 433? But no new English Standard Version which I want.

MULTIPLE TRANSLATIONS/PARAPHRASES: Since the Old Testament books were written in Hebrew, and the New Testament books were written in Greek, translation is important to those of us who can't write or speak those languages. Sometimes, it is helpful to read a passage in different translations and or paraphrases, to get a fuller understanding of the original intent of the original text. Most Bible readers have a feature where you can have multiple translations loaded, and view the different translations at the same time!

Now, I'm sure there are other reasons, this is all I could come up with before I had my coffee... Ahhh, coffee, the OTHER dark meat!

I had been using the Olivetree BibleReader. Just yesterday, I registered a copy of MyBible 3.0. I really like BibleReader software, but it seems to be going through some growing pains moving to OS5.x. Their OS5 version is rather buggy being still in beta. The reader is free and many Bibles are too. I am going to keep it around just in case. MyBible seems to be a lot faster to me. Probably because they break the Bibles into several sections instead of one big file like BibleReader. What I don't like about MyBible is the way you navigate around the Bible. It was much easier to go to a specific verse in BibleReader.
It's hard to find everything that you want in a Palm Bible software.

As for Quickverse; I use the PC version which I like very much. I didn't know they had a Palm version. Will have to check that out.

For one thing, it is much more than just a book to many people. I agree with wardtn on the indexing point. People want to be able to quickly get to any one sentence quickly using the standard {book} {chapter}:{verse} indexing system.

But I have to disagree about the size. As far as ebooks go, I think the Bible is really not as big as most people think it is. Sure, it's larger than even a long novel, but I don't consider it massive. One printed Bible I have is 1300 pages. On my PDA it takes up 1.7MB compressed as a document.

Anyway, not a big deal, I just always thought that people overestimate its size.

Are we saying...dare I consider the possibility...that size doesn't matter!?

Well, somebody was bound to say it...

But I think 1.7 MB is pretty big. I haven't seen a text-only book for the Palm bigger than that...so, I guess I'm a callin' you out pardner! THis here town ain't big enough for a Bible AND Ward & Peace, uh, War & Peace! so...DRAW! ...oh, well, I couldn't find a 'showdown' smilie...maybe a friendly game of chicken? We could both drive MINI's!

Well I found a larger book for you. I have an introduction to the Bible book on Palm Reader that is 3.4 MB!

Just had to add to this discussion.

As a Pastor I try hard to get people to love reading and studying their Bibles. For Palm geeks I have recommened them to get a Bible program for the reason that if they are using their Palm already then it would be good to have the Bible at hand as well.

Since you mentioned War & Peace, Amazon lists one version of it as having 1456 pages, compared to my Bible at 1309. I know War & Peace is regarded as one of the bigger/biggest books around. All I'm trying to say is that the Bible is a big book, but not as huge as most people think.

One of my favorite lines of Get Smart (Don Adams spy spoof of the 1960's I think), an evil Control secret agent is attacking with a knife. Maxwell Smart (the good guy) looks for something to defend himself. They are in a bookstore or book warehouse so he grabs a book and shields himself from the plunging blade just in the knick of time. The knife penetrates into the book but doesn't make it all the way through. Maxwell Smart looks at the half embedded knife and the Title of the book is War and Peace and proclaims "Nobody makes it through War & Peace!

Well I might try out MyBible and Olivetree's Biblereader and see what I like! THank you all for the info. If anyone else has something to share, go ahead!

BTW, does anyone know about VFS for MyBible and Biblereader (Olivetree). Can you have both the app and the Bibles on the card? Must they be in a specific folder/subdirectory with a specific name? I was going to load these two programs up and give them a try this weekend. Thanks for any help you might be able to give. Ya'll are jest sew nice ta hep me!

Both MyBible and Olive Tree have VFS but it depends on what you want to do with the programs. I load the Bibles and other data onto my SD card (each program has it's own directory, check the readme file or website for specific info) and the programs I leave in RAM. MyBible is only 89k for the program and Olive Tree is much bigger at 433k. I also use Daily Reader from MyBible and to see the Bible verses in this program MyBible needs to be in RAM. But if you don't need this you can put both programs on the card and they will run fine (just slower because of VFS)

Hope this helps

Pastor Mike

Or you can put MyBible on the card and create a shortcut in LX so DailyReader "sees" it.

The "other" Pastor Mike

p.s. The Bible files in MyBible are placed into the palm / programs / MyBible directory on the card. Not sure about OliveTree.

Thanks for the info, I will give them a try.

Oops! I just discovered there is no free trial for MyBible, just a no risk, money-back guarantee. I will have to think about it. Meanwhile, I will check out OliveTree's BibleReader.

The nicest Bible app is PalmBible+ over at Sourceforge. Plus, someone used regex and a web spider to take a bunch of translations off gospelcom and converted them to PalmBible+ format. I have NIV, KVJ, NKJV, NLT, NASB, and others on my TC.

Of course it's illegal to have most of those translations without purchasing them through an authorized distributor.

Ah, I get it. I see that indexing is very imporant. I was going to suggest weasel reader, but you probably want things preformatted. Weasel Reader supports all these kinds of notes, Bookmarks and some sort of indexing system.

Would it not be doable within some program such as Weasel reader?

I didn't wait to question anybodys beliefs, I'm sorry. It's a book, to me, that's what I should have said. Meow.

Edit: It is illegal to have some translations of the Bible? Huh? Excuse me, but that book is, as far as I know, the public property of everyone who wants it. Having special programs to read it would be another story, but just having all the text should be perfectly alright.

Well, actually, it's 'illegal' to 'get' certain TRANSLATIONS (written interpretation, if you will) of the bible without paying the copyright holder (of the specific TRANSLATION). For example, a COMPANY did the NIV translation, therefore, they hold the copyright of THAT translation.

The King James Version, on the other hand. Is FREE ~ it's been 'out of copyright' for a few hundred years. Available for free any way you want it.

PalmBible+ or Bible+ just came out with an update. Apparantly they took over the Poetry Poon project, which might have been BibleReader by Asaisoft...I'm a little unclear. Anyway, you can get it through freewarepalm.com. I'm giving it a try. I'm also trying to hit 800 posts...2 more to go!

For Bible+ you can go to the orginal site:

http://palmbibleplus.sourceforge.net/

Here there is all kinds of info on how to use the program, a forum for users and ways to import your own Bible texts to use with the program. I like the program though it takes many steps to make your own Bible module it is great to have that ability.

It now supports HiRes+!!!

Hey Mike,

Do you know if MyBible will look on BOTH my cards for translations? I've got a little CF card, and a big (256MB) SD card. I'd like to move my translations to the SD card...any ideas?

I thought I could make the exact file path on the SD card and delete it from the CF card...maybe the HandEra will skip over the CF and zero in on the SD. Maybe Genoahous (Craig) will see this and chime in on the HandEra specifics...

I can chime in, but don't have too much experience with apps accessing CF/SD and how to force them to the right flash device...

I think it's up to the app to look on both, and my experience (if I remember correctly) is that most apps default to CF (as if it's the only flash card). But I'm not a POS programmer so don't know for sure...

One thing to try is put app in RAM, and only have one card with data inserted. Try app see if it sees data. try second card, try app... try with both cards... and finally delete data on the card where you don't want it, and see if it still sees data where you want it to see data (warning delete, as long as you know you've got another copy of data).

I'd just go ahead and email Laridian support. I've always received a prompt answer - usually on that same day - usually from Patty B. If she doesn't know the answer, I'm sure she could track it down.

I use the olivetree version. They have good product support, they update the program regularily and questions are answered quickly. I've never had problems with the software, and it's very easy to use. It also has alot of features.
Steve

On a separate note. There are many translations that are free such as "God's word" "mkjv" and "isv". These are all "up to date" I just wish the "isv" had the Old Testament. I bought the "nrsv" version four years ago and all updates have been free.

bTW, Mike was right, Patty B. helped me and I'm now running my Bible Modules for MyBible from my SD card. And Craig was right, there was a slight slowdown for initial loading, but hardly perceptible.

I don't mean to sound snotty, but the olivetree bible reader uses memory cards quite well. Like the others there is a bit of a speed trade off, but part of that comes from the fact that my clie runs at 33mhz. I overclock the bible reader and it cuts the slow down by up to 50%.

Steve,

It's been a little while, but I used Olivetree before. I'm having trouble remembering it, but I remember 2 things about it, one good and one not so good.

The good was that I think it took advantage of my virtual grafitti area. The bad was that it was slow, especially when I 'backed up', backing up through text I had read. It would flash a bunch of times and take so long. Also, the program itself is bigger than MyBible...I think it's more than twice as big? But, I did like it too...I just went with mybible...both are good choices...like white and milk chocolate...

I use Laridian and have read the Bible form start to finish on my first (M505). I now have 5 different versions on my TE.



The Bible is more than "just a book".

The Bible is an instruction manual. It instructs us on how we should live here on earth. It holds the "Truth" to the "Meaning of Life" that so many seek.
The Bible instructs us on how to achieve the "Eternal Life" that so many seek.
By having my "Instruction Manual" on my Palm Pilot I am ready for anything that comes my way.

Can anyone recommend a good reader/Bible combination that focuses specifically on the Old Testament?

AZgatekeep,

I've wanted to respond to this post, but I wanted to have something useful to say. I don't know if I have an answer, but I can try...

I use MyBible v3. I like it very much. The one thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't seem to have an autoscroll feature, which means I have to keep tapping the screen or the down scroll button. There is a version 4 which is designed for Palm OS 5 and greater (I have OS 4.1 on my HandEra) so I haven't looked into it's new features.

You can load only the old testament if you prefer. I think the files that come with a bible version can be loaded individually. That means you get a few books of the Bible with each pdb or data file you load. E.g., you might load the first file and get the Pentatuch (well, you will get maybe Genesis through Deuteronomy...since those are big books, you might have to load the next file too.

If you want to look into MyBible, go to www.laridian.com and check it out. They also have a program called DailyReader where you can load up devotionals or bible reading plans, some might be specific to the Old Testament...

Good luck! If I discover anything useful, I'll pass it on.

Another option that might be helpful:

Olivetree's Biblereader (www.olivetree.com) is a free program and then you can purchase any Bible you want. The Bible files are one file so you can't seperate out Old from New but there is a version called the Tanakh which is an OT translation by Jewish scholars.

Hope this helps,
Mike

The bible program I like is Bible+. This is free software, open source under the GNU public License.

Bible+ offers a split screen interface, you can have two different bible versions loaded and compare them. Scrolling is synchronized between the two windows, so the same verses are always displayed.

Under OS5, Bible+ also offers font support, and bible texts can be displayed in Hebrew or Greek if the appropriate fonts are installed.

Bibles can be stored on an expansion card. So can fonts.

An assortment of versions of the bible are available, and the web site offers pointers to others, plus conversions tools that can be used to get bibles into the format Bible+ uses. One of the developers sent me a link to a version of the Holy Koran in Bible+ format.

You can get Bible+ at http://palmbibleplus.sourceforge.net
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Dennis

I also use OliveTree's BibleR+. There are several study bibles that are designed only for the New Testament, possibly for the Old Testament too. Most programs have a demo of the Reader program, and a free Bible version. You might want to try the demos, and see which works best for what you would like to do.
Jeremie

WoW! Jeremie! I like your avatar - sweet!

Thanks, I got them from the downloads page of the new movie's site:
http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/downloads
http://www.hitchhikerthemovie.com
It definitely looks like it will be cool!
Jeremie

Hey guys

I am a little low on ram on my old Handsping Edge, but I would like to keep my RVR Spanish Bible on my Palm - is there any way to compress the 1.4MB file and still use it with Olivetree. I tried Bible+, but it will not recognize my pdb file

Ruben

Not that I'm aware of. Olivetree would have to recognize the compression method and be able to decompress it.

You have a couple of options:

1) Look into an expansion card for the Edge. Several manufacturers made modules that would support expansion cards. I have a PiTech MemPlug Compact Flash adapter on my old Visor Pro. The MemPlug was a Springboard module that plugged into the Springboard slot on the Pro. VFS support for handling files on expansion cards was built into the firmware on the MemPlug, and activated automatically when the MemPlug was inserted. the question is whether the version of Olivetree you run can read files on an expansion card. Older software, written before VFS was introduced, may not see files on an expansion card. There is a possible solution here, too.

PiTech MemPlugs are no longer available in the US. You may be able to order one from the PiTech site, or look for one on eBay. I don't own an Edge, so I don't recall if it supports the Springboard module. I seem to recall Handspring had a unit or two that didn't.

2) Look for a copy of the RVR Spanish bible that Bible+ *can* read. No surprise it couldn't deal with your Olivetree file -- Olivetree probably uses a different document format than Bible+. The Bible+ site has links to sources of other bible editions and conversion tools you can use top generate Bible+ files. I don't recall offhand what sort of compression Bible+ supports. If it uses sysZlib, you should be able to get gzip compatible compression on files it can read.

3) If Olivetree on your Edge can't see expansion cards, and you *can* get a Springboard module or other expansion card adapter for your Edge, PiTech has software called PiDirect II. PiDirect !! makes the contents of a directory on the expansion card appear to be in RAM, so the files can be seen by programs that aren't VFS aware. There are two "gotchas":

1) It can only enable one directory at a time. This is a PalmOS limitation.

2) Files enabled by PiDirect are read-only. Any attempt to write to the files will cause a crash and reset. For files like bible files, this should not be an issue.

PiDirect comes in two versions: a generic one that works with other expansion modules, and one specific to the MemPlug.
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Dennis

2) Look for a copy of the RVR Spanish bible that Bible+ *can* read. No surprise it couldn't deal with your Olivetree file -- Olivetree probably uses a different document format than Bible+. The Bible+ site has links to sources of other bible editions and conversion tools you can use top generate Bible+ files. I don't recall offhand what sort of compression Bible+ supports. If it uses sysZlib, you should be able to get gzip compatible compression on files it can read.

Did that (:-) Is there any compress programm that allows Bible+ to read it although its compressed?? Like Quickoffice does??

Ruben

We're talking past each other.

Compression is commonly used in PalmOS. Aportis Doc (now defunct) originated the Palm "doc" format which is the defacto standard for plain text documents. Palm doc files are compressed with a form of RLE encoding that reduces the size about 40% to save space in RAM. Palm doc readers decompress the file on the fly as they display it.

More recently, developers have been using sysZlib, a Palm port of the Zlib compression library. Zlib provides Gzip compatible compression, and documents compressed with Zlib can be up to 70% smaller than the original.

But sysZlib is implemented as a shared library, and the program must be written to use it to be able to decompress Zlib compressed documents. I have several here that do: Plucker, an offline HTML viewer; WeaselReader, a reader for Project Gutenberg Etexts, and LionDoc, a Palm doc viewer based on CSpotRun that adds support for expansion cards and Zlib compressed documents.

You've already discovered Bible+ won't read Olivetree bile files. Compressing it won't help you.

If you can get the Spanish version as a plain text file, you can convert it with Rafael Fetzer's PDA Converter to either a Plucker document or a zText file readable by WeaselReader or LionDoc, but you'll lose the Bible+/Olivetree special features for bible reading.
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Dennis

I see - there is the point (.--))

Well think that would be a nice addition to bible+ (:--))

Ruben

Since what you have is an Olivetree file, Bible+ won't be able to read it in any case. You would do better to suggest to the Olivetree folks that they add support for sysZlib compression.
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Dennis

Oh soryy - but right now I am using bible+ - smaller and faster. And the sagradas escrituras version is a newer revised version (:-)

Ruben

Thanks for all the input. After researching and evaluating OliveTree and PalmBible+ I ended up keeping PalmBible+ - I just preferred the way it looked and worked.