bernie gave me some great backchannel feedback on "give".
i'll share it and reply to it here on the list to avoid duplication.

-bowerbird

bernie said:
>   As I find it easier to criticise another programmer's work 
>   than to write a program myself here goes...  :)

i'm happy to be in the hot seat...           :+)


>   1. For those of us with only a 56k modem and, 
>   as you're asking for feedback,

>   a compressed file in the dropbox would have been appreciated.

sorry about that!


>   2. In the old menu, I think 'new' should be greyed 
>   to keep it consistent with the new menu.

i do indeed do that, but for some reason,
menu-items which are too far down 
in the menu can't be greyed out.


>   3. I'm sorry but, I don't like your full screen help windows. 
>   Too much white space (hurts my eyes). 
>   What's wrong with conventional windows with close box?

i can probably change that.
since i often make fun of e-book programs that
use some other unrelated program for their documentation,
i should want my help text to work just like the e-book itself.


>   4. For those windows which do have a close box, 
>   a file/close item would be nice.

closing the main window is equivalent to quitting the program.
so a command-q will effectively close that window...         :+)

i think a "close" command for the background window
would clutter the menu unnecessarily, but i'll consider it.

i will have a command-w to close the find window, however.


>   5. Program help doesn't mention history, annotate & marked menus.

or some other things, which are appended to this post.
but the "history" menu is fairly self-explanatory, not?
and the annotate and marked menus weren't implemented
in the version you have.  (but they are now, so anyone else,
please hold off on reviewing until i put the new version up.


>   6. Selecting 2-page display gives 'm hart request' dialog. 
>   Clicking change to 1-page display button 
>   doesn't switch to 1-page display.

hmm.  seems to work correctly for me.
it's not supposed to work on the opening screen,
could this be what you're referring to?


>   7. Find 'done' button doesn't refresh screen 
>   (probably because it's only temporary).

i thought i hadn't even yet implemented the find functionality in 
this version, so i'll have to go back and take a look at what i sent.
but yes, the find functions are still being refined.
do you have any suggestions is this regard?

oh, i think i see what you mean.  when a find command is executed,
the display is automatically switched to a 1-page display,
and the "done" button doesn't automatically switch it back later.
perhaps i should keep track of an auto-switch, and switch back.

also i see that the "next" and "prev" buttons didn't work in this version.
a pity, that, because that capability is truly very nifty...  next version...


>   8. When text-to-speech is on, resizing window 
>   causes speech to restart from top of page.

yeah, the text-to-speech needs much refining as well.  suggestions?


>   9. It would be nice if speech could be interrupted 
>   when selecting a menu, etc.

i think it pauses after each verse to let you do things like this.


in addition, though, would a "stop speaking" button be useful?
perhaps complemented with a "resume speaking" button?
or maybe click on a verse to start speaking from there on?


>   10. Not sure what that background window 
>   (the one with the collapse and close buttons) 
>   is supposed to be doing. I close it and 
>   it reappears when I resize the text window!?

the background window is to cover the desktop
when the text-display window isn't full-screen,
to minimize distractions when the user is reading.

but if it was closed, it shouldn't reappear on a resize.
ok, yeah, that was a bug.  and i've fixed it.  thank you.


>   11. History menu: What's with the 
>   command symbol at end of each item? 
>   Also, why does each item start with either '0 ' or '1 ' ?

i don't know what the command symbol is, i'll check that.
ok, yep, another bug, located and squashed, thank you again.

each history item starts with the page-number of that item,
so if you were seeing either "0" or "1", you must have been
either using the +/- buttons to jump from book to book, or
switching between 1-page and 2-page display on page 0/1
(there's always an even page on the left side in 2-page mode,
you'd be surprised how many e-book programs are oblivious to 
even the most basic of typographical fundamentals like this.)


>   12. Why 2 x '->' and 2 x '<-' buttons?

they're on each end because that's the natural place for them.

and there's also an additional pair in the middle because
sometimes you want to have them right next to each other,
so you can mouse quickly and easily from one to the other.

most of the time, though, i use the cursor-keys anyway...


>   13. Menus: Don't like the use of lowercase. 
>   Plus, there're some long menus here. 
>   Can some of them be reduced/simplified by using hier menus, 
>   not combining old & new, new & old, etc?

all lower-case menus is to remind you that i wrote the program...     :+)

as for long menus, i prefer them to hierarchical menus, strongly.

but interestingly, p.c.-side menus are incapable of scrolling!)

(i originally put all books in both testaments in both the old and 
new menus -- old testament at the bottom of the new menu, and
new testament at the bottom of the old menu -- as a convenience
to the reader, but because of this limitation, each testament menu
on the p.c.-side version will contain only the books in that testament.)


>   14. Don't like the quit button at the bottom of the window.

don't use it then...            :+)



>   15. I couldn't make it crash.  :(

it makes me happy to make you unhappy that way...         ;+)

-bowerbird

p.s.  here are some additional features undocumented in your version...

you might or might not know that you can type a number, hit <enter>,
and the e-book will jump to that page number.  the number 
will appear around about the upper-left-corner as you type it.
type 38<enter> to jump to page 38.

if you want to jump to a _chapter_ number, instead of a page number,
type the chapter number, append a colon, and hit <enter> to jump to it.
type 8:<enter> to jump to chapter 8.

you can also type in a book name, or even the first few letter(s) of it,
and you'll jump to that book.  for instance, psa<enter>, will jump to psalms.

or you can type bookname-space-chapter-colon-verse-enter to
jump immediately from anywhere else in the bible to that exact point.

for instance, type "psa 23:1" (noquotes), and hit enter, boom!, 23rd psalm.
(if that works, or doesn't, try "psa 23 1" and see if that will work, i think
i programmed it so a space acts the same as a colon, for ease of user entry.)

these are the kinds of supernavigational features i think are very important.

-bowerbird