Instant Details and Lexicons-- a plea

[Sandersann]

I love instant details but unless I am missing something, the current implementation substantially limits its usefulness when it comes to displaying the text behind a non-biblical reference. The issue is that the user cannot choose a specific version of the original text (e.g., Apostolic Fathers-Holmes versus Apostolic Fathers-Lightfoot) or a translation versus the original language (e.g., Apostolic Fathers Greek versus Apostolic Fathers-English).

 

The way a reference is interpreted is also handled inconsistently from resource to resource, even within the same category of resources. For example, BDAG uses Joseph-T (in Greek) for references of Antiquities of the Jews. However, TLNT(Spicq) uses Josephus English for the same work.

 

If I remember correctly,  links to specific texts used to be hardcoded in lexicons which was an issue when the resource linked to was not present in the user's library. in such cases, nothing was displayed even if a parallel resource was owned (e.g. Did not have the Qumran-Hebrew but had Qumeng-English Translation).  A few years back, a solution was implemented by having Accordance cycle through parallel resources when the default resource was not found (if Qumram was not owned, Qumeng would be displayed).

 

However, and unless there is a way around it that I have still not figured out, if you own both Qumram and Qumeng, you still have no way to choose Qumeng over Qumran, because the default resource is automatically displayed without any way to change the ranking and regardless of library order of parallel non-biblical texts.

 

I know that you could get the version or translation you like by using Triple-Click and then switching to the parallel resource of your choice. 

However, this defeats the very purpose of instant details which is to allow a quick display of a given reference. With these added steps, we are far removed from anything remotely "Instant".

 

I could see this globally resolved by displaying non-biblical references not by cycling through a predetermined order  only if the default text is not found (a process that assumes that all or most lexicon users have the ability to translate non-biblical original language texts on the fly just by virtue of having the resource in their library ) , but by adopting something that already works great elsewhere in accordance: Sort by Library Order. This way, Instant Details will display non-biblical references based on a choice made by the user which would include library order.

 

Of course  Instant Details might be customizable in the future to display more than one translation or version at the time (those of us who use large monitor have a lot of real estate when it comes to displaying a single verse or sentence), but I would be content for now  if I could just choose a version or a translation for Instant Details.

 

Alain

Edited October 16, 2018 by Sandersann