Have a option on Greek texts to omit all smooth breathing marks on the screen.

[Enoch]

The only function of the smooth breathing mark is to confuse the reader with the rough breathing mark.  So not displaying them should help the reader.  Of course we know that the ancient NT texts do not have breathing marks anyway.  I wish I could persuade all publishers of Greek texts to abolish the smooth breathing mark.  I began Greek in Bible College & had stopped writing smooth breathing marks by the time I took a Greek course in seminary. Then I got stung with points deducted from a test in seminary for not writing the smooth breathing marks on a test.  So when I taught Greek, I did not tell my students not to write those anopheles mosquitoes.

[Lawrence]

After thinking about it for awhile, I see the merits of your suggestion.

 

I still might not go so far as to remove the smooth breathing marks altogether, but it would be really nice to have the rough breathing marks look different from smooth breathing marks at normal reading font sizes, particularly for us older folk. It's possible to increase the font size across the board but that's not what I'm after - the monitor needs to still show a good chunk of text, not just fit a few huge-font words.

 

Perhaps there can be a different visual weight for the two breathing marks - normal for smooth, bold for rough.

Another possibility is to have each breathing mark show in a different colour.

[Kristin]

Hi @Enoch,

I had never really thought of it before since, like you, in seminary I would get points knocked for not writing the smooth breathing marks, so I am just sort of used to it even though it isn't original. After what you wrote though, I agree it would be helpful if they looked different. I like the idea @Lawrence gave of having the rough in bold.

Given the fact that the markings can't be turned off like the Hebrew points in settings, I imagine it would require a total re-working of the text for Accordance to make such an edit. The only thing I can think of is using the older texts in caps as a parallel, but that of course brings its own issues of being in caps.

[Enoch]

1 hour ago, Lawrence said:

After thinking about it for awhile, I see the merits of your suggestion.

 

I still might not go so far as to remove the smooth breathing marks altogether, but it would be really nice to have the rough breathing marks look different from smooth breathing marks at normal reading font sizes, particularly for us older folk. It's possible to increase the font size across the board but that's not what I'm after - the monitor needs to still show a good chunk of text, not just fit a few huge-font words.

 

Perhaps there can be a different visual weight for the two breathing marks - normal for smooth, bold for rough.

Another possibility is to have each breathing mark show in a different colour.

My suggestion is not to force anyone not have smooth breathings who wants it, it is merely to have a preference to not see them for those who don't want them.  Your idea of course could also be a selectable choice.  I suppose you don't object that those who don't want smooth breathings could be able not to have them.  BTW, you could have as a monitor a 55 inch TV as I do & have all the room you want.  I doubt that it requires a huge re-working to do something as simple as you can do with MS Word, namely to replace A with B. It might mean that when a text is displayed all the characters which can bear smooth breathings would get the find & replace treatment with the same characters sans smooth breathings.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Enoch

[Lawrence]

@Enoch

I also had in mind a selectable preference. If Accordance is famous for anything, it's its customisability.

With the large TV, yes it helps, but sometimes I use a laptop, and it's back to squinting and the like.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Got this on the list. Thanks for suggesting it!

[Enoch]

Have new option for EXPORT of Greek texts: Strip smooth breathings (nothing else) as an option in Preferences. 

Also have that option in right click copy as .

Under menu item: No Superscript have below it another choice No Smooth Breathings.

 

Thanks

Edited April 27, 2023 by Enoch

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Enoch duplicated this feedback in a separate post, so I merged it here. Please continue to use this thread for any feedback on this since this is the thread I’ve already linked to in my feature requests doc.