Command-Option-A used to insert a verse with an erroneous reference

[bdollahite]

In a recent webinar I was informed that it is consider the expected behavior when an invalid Bible reference is entered into the dialog box to return a verse anyway.  I would like to open a discussion here as to whether that is the desired behavior.

 

For example:  If I enter Judges 19:31 (note there are only 30 verse in Judges) into the dialogue box — I would like to se returned an alert that the requested verse reference is to a valid reference.  What happen now is I get back Judges 19:30.

 

However, if I enter Judges 22:1 (there are only 21 chapters in Judges) into the dialog box — I get Judges 21:1 returned.

The same behavior happens with an entry of Judge 23:1, 24:1, and 25:1 — but on entering Judges 26:1 I get an alert noise — and nothing else is returned.  I can live with this behavior, but I would have preferred a text response along with the alert noise (assuming that was possible).

 

NOTE — Similar behavior on Ruth 5:1 — I get Ruth 4:1 returned.  But on entering Ruth 6:1, I get the alert beep only.  

 

I don't understand why Judges can have a typo 4-chapters out of range and work, but Ruth fails at 2-chapters out of range.  I prefer any invalid reference to fail — whether notified by an alert sound only, or alert sound plus a dialog stating the issue.

 

Worst is when you enter an invalid verse reference for a valid chapter (e.g., the Judge 19:31 example previous cited).  It seems the default here is to return the last verse of a referenced chapter.  I enter Judges 19:200 and still get Judges 19:30.  I wanted Judges 19:20 — but did not seem my type and with Accordance help, I introduced an error — the text for 19:30 being inserted in my paper with a cite of 19:30 — but the desired enter of 19:20 is now posted (and this become a more difficult error to find on proof reading).

 

So typos on a chapter part of a reference, with a valid verse part for some chapter, might return an alert and then they may not.  Inconsistent behavior like that just does not seem desirable.  Hence, I am seeking to read an explanation response as to why this is a proper expected result (there may be a use case of which I am ignorant)— or that this issue be treated like a bug, prioritized and addressed in some future bug fix release of Accordance.

 

 

[Joel Brown]

This is deliberate behavior, though perhaps it can be tweaked.  The general reason is that we do not assume the user has memorized what the last verse of a chapter is, or the last chapter of a book.  Thus, a user may wish to simply either view that last verse, or to type a range that goes to the end of the chapter.  A user could then type Gen 45:15-99 to get the rest of that chapter, without remembering the last verse.  Similarly, a user could just request Gen 47-52 to get the rest of Genesis without having to remember that there are 50 chapters.

 

Historically, it would never fail - a search for Gen 47-9999999 would still work.  Even a search for Gen 999999:99999 would work.  We decided this was a bit too out of bounds, so we added a ~25% margin to the end, which is why you have the buffer at the end of Joshua and Ruth, though different buffer lengths.  Probably we should increase the buffer a bit, as 25% seems a bit too close to 'real' numbers to be of any use.