Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true
(Acts 17:11)

Latest version:
1.31n Dec 29,'08

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does the name LcdBible mean?
   
   • Little Children Devoted to the Bible
   • Lowest Common Denominator Bible to reflect that it works very well on obsolete computers
   • Lynn and Candace Allan's Donated freeware for encouraging Bible literacy :-)
2. How is LcdBible different from other Bible software?
   LcdBible was intentionally simplifed so as to have a trivial learning curve for people who aren't necessarily techies, and to have very good performance on dinosaur computers that are typically donated to the third world. Somewhat incidentally, this resulted in LcdBible also being suitable for less computer literate people with or without modern computers (such as missionaries, younger children, senior citizens, etc.).
   See FAQ for Other Software
3. How does LcdBible performance compare to other Bible software?
   On older computers, LcdBible is typically much faster to load/launch and generally 3x to 10x faster to do searches. On modern computers, it is still significantly faster but you probably won't notice much difference between 1/10 second and 1/100 second.
4. What is involved to install LcdBible?
   Very straightforward ... probably one of the most simple installs you will encounter.
   See FAQ for Installation
5. What kind of searches can be done with LcdBible?
   Fairly elaborate. See FAQ for Searching
6. What kind of Help is available?
   Fairly elaborate. See FAQ for Help (F1 HtmlHelp and Context Sensitive Help CSH)
7. What enhancements are envisioned for LcdBible?
   Lots. See FAQ for Roadmap of Envisioned Enhancements
8. Is there a tutorial available?
   The installation includes a separate file with a 100+ step tutorial which is oriented to relatively inexperienced computer users. During the first part of this tutorial, each and every mouse click and keystroke are described. There are QwkChecks for each section of the tutorial to help determine if you can skip that part. The embedded HtmlHelp (reached using F1) contains the equivalent of the tutorial in a series of Help pages. However, it isn't that handy to be viewing LcdBible and WinHelp at the same time unless you have a double monitor setup or a large monitor with very high resolution (1280*1024 or greater). It works better to print out the tutorial and follow along.
9. What other documentation is available?
   Tip-of-the-Day can be shown at startup.
10. What other learning aids exist to get up to speed with LcdBible?
    An animated slideshow demonstrates basic features of LcdBible (corresponds to the LcdBible tutorial).
11. What is freeware? Is LcdBible freeware?
    No charge, nags, expiration, crippled functions, spyware. LcdBible is freeware.
12. What is shareware? Is LcdBible shareware?
    Try before you buy. May be nags, expiration, crippled functions, etc. LcdBible is not shareware. Note that we are are definitely not anti-capitalist, not against commercial Bible software, and not against charging for published Bibles. There can be enormous expenses in preparing, publishing, and distributing Bibles.
13. Is there a connection between LcdBible and the InVerse Scripture memorization freeware?
    Both were written by the same developer with similar tools and look and feel. An eventual goal is that InVerse will be integrated with LcdBible.
14. Is there a connection between LcdBible and BerBible?
    LcdBible gets its name from Lowest Common Denominator Bible (or Little Children Devoted to the Bible, or Lynn and Candace's Donation for Bible study). It uses the GPL license and the sword-api to access Bible texts made available by The CrossWire Bible Society. BerBible uses the Mozilla 1.1 license and independently developed logic to access public domain vpl format files (one verse per 31,102 lines using KJV versification and no embedded tags allowed). Both were written by the same developer with the same tools, have similar features, and have a generally consistent look and feel.
15. Is the source code to LcdBible available?
    Yes. It is maintained on the SourceForge website.
16. What tools were used to develop LcdBible?
    Visual C++ 6.0, 7.1, and 8.0, NSIS 2.0.x installer, Doxygen 1.4.x, TextPad, Visual Test, Qarbon ViewletBuilder Freeware ver 4.5.x, LViewPro 2.0, CSE HtmlValidator 7.0.x, Visual Source Safe, Ms Word-For-Windows, Ftp Commander 7.4, WinSCP 3.7.6.
17. What limitations does LcdBible have?
    Quite a few. Mea culpa.
    As of ver 1.30k [Oct, 2005], there are no provisions for commentaries, note taking, or dictionaries. Only English Bibles from The CrossWire Bible Society are usable. Other freeware Bibles have many more Bible texts available. LcdBible doesn't use embedded tags to delineate paragraphs, Strong's numbers, words of Christ in red, footnotes, cross-references, etc. Realistically, if you are computer literate, want to do relatively sophisticated things with Bible software, have a relatively modern computer, need the more popular modern English Bible translations (NIV, ESV, NKJV, etc.), and have an adequate budget, there are better choices besides LcdBible. Otherwise, LcdBible will probably meet your needs quite adequately.
18. Can multiple LcdBible's be running at the same time?
    This is possible ... just start LcdBible several times. Each instance can be used to show a different translation (if you have more than one translation installed). However, LcdBible only saves registry information about the last instance closed. When you restart LcdBible, this will be the translation you will see.
19. Why is the developer making LcdBible available?
    We have been abundantly blessed, and want to give something back.
20. Is there a Pro version of LcdBible available for a fee with additional features?
    No. This would not be freeware, but a variant of shareware. Note that we are are definitely not anti-capitalist, not against commercial Bible software, and not against charging for published Bibles. There can be enormous expenses in preparing, publishing, and distributing Bibles.
21. How do I report a bug? Make a suggestion? Obtain support?
    Send an e-mail to: lcdbible@yahoogroups.com
22. Can a person with software development skills participate in LcdBible development?
    Yes. Contact us with your experience, skill-set, and interests. LcdBible reflects input from techies in Tennessee, Greece, and Holland. A goal is to have a very collaborative development process using much more Team Programming according to XP (Extreme Programming) recommendations.
23. Can a person without software development skills participate in LcdBible?
    Yes, including documentation, support, testing, encouragement, webmaster, iron sharpens iron, etc. Contact us.
24. What is your evaluation about other Bible software such as ...?
    Much is quite good, but generally seems oriented to scholars with modern computers. There tends to be such an abundance of features that they can be baffling for non-techies to use. Basic operations can be less than obvious to figure out. Load/launch and searches can be sluggish, even on relatively modern computers. Realistically, how often do you do more than GoTo a particular verse reference or do a search for one or more words? These basic capabilities are very simple, fast, and obvious to accomplish with LcdBible.
25. To what extent do you get what you pay for? Is LcdBible a hunk of junk?
    IMHO, LcdBible does at least a decent job at meeting its rather simplistic objectives. Obviously, there is lots of room for improvement. Q/A-wise, it uses a 4500+ line Visual Test script for regression testing to avoid bugs and crashes ... LcdBible has (so far -- knock wood :-) been relatively bullet-proof with no reported bugs or crashes. There is extensive Doxygen embedded documentation. There is a reasonable alpha + beta test protocol before software is released, taking advantage of cooperative yahoo e-group members who like to break software.
26. What is XP (Extreme Programming)?
    XP is a style of software development aimed at preparing higher quality software in less time. The basic tenets are: team programming, extensive regression testing, release early / release often for user feedback, etc.
27. Do keyboard accelerator shortcuts work?
    Ok in the main windows, but flaky in the Options Dialog. This may be a bug with the Win2k and WinXp operating system, (but a poor craftsman blames his tools???) in that the Options Dialog shortcuts work once you have pressed the Alt key. This can be changed for all applications in the
    Control Panel + Display + Appearance / Effects
    Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key setting.
28. Why isn't the Options Dialog modeless?
    It probably should be so that it behaves in a standard way while you are making refinements to the search. The Options dialog was originally modal, and it was easier to utilize a quasi-modeless hold-your-nose approach to accomplish refined Searches directly. The net effect is that the Options Dialog appears in the upper left of the screen, so it may be advisable to reposition the main window to the right somewhat. If it aint' broke, don't fix it.
29. Why doesn't LcdBible conform more closely to Windows standard behavior?
    The biggest differences are the lack of a menu and a status bar. An overriding objective of LcdBible was usability on a computer (or laptop) with only 640*480 resolution. This argued against having these features, which take up quite a bit of screen real estate.
30. When will LcdBible be finished?
    My wife wonders the same thing, especially around dinner time or when some bills come due :-)
31. What prayers would be appropriate for LcdBible?
    
    • God's blessing, power from His Holy Spirit, and more awareness of the limits of our own strength
    • continued support by family
    • more collaborative team programming, rather than LcdBible being primarily a solo effort
    • permissions from publishers to make their Bible texts available
    • collaboration with The CrossWire Bible Society
    • integration with InVerse Scripture memorization freeware
    • progress on other aspects of the enhancement roadmap
    • Col 3:23 "work as unto the Lord"
32. Have you been born again? What does it mean to be born again? Are there on-line resources for leading someone to saving faith in Jesus Christ?
    
    • Evangelism Explosion
    • Cruising To Heaven