Look what you started SBL! The Bible Software blogger-cooler

Well, we got some great discussion going on revolving around Bible Software. It began at SBL with a Bible Software shootout. I heard about this from Rick Mansfield, who reported favorably on the whole thing, though in favor of Accordance.

However, the firestorm definitely ensued with Michael Heiser's blog post on how the status quo in bible software has changed. With all due respect to Michael, even though he tried to be friendly, he basically stuck out his tongue on behalf of Logos and chanted over and over "we're the best and your the worst" (I joke of course). Heiser is also speaking from his own point of view as well— it was not an official Logos communication I don't think. Michael makes some good points as well as some points I don't totally agree with. One issue that I think definitely does put Logos a cut above, in my opinion, is the ability to sync to an iPhone, and eventually to sync a Mac, PC, and iPhone. This is and will continue to be a great thing- though having a internet connection is a drag.

His post has solicited some reactions, but it seems that the commenting feature on his blog doesn't seem to be working- thus the reason for this blogger cooler.

- A very good and detailed discussion revolving around the syntax issue has taken place on the Accordance forum by a poster named Marco.

- Another very good post with which I agree very much with comes from Ruben at Bible Software Review.

- Rick Mansfield has also posted some initial reflections on Michael's post, with more forthcoming I'm sure. He also asks some questions of Heiser, which I hope to see response to on Michael's blog. He also adds a good dose of realism to Heiser's claims. THIS BLOG POST HAS BEEN DELETED BY THE AUTHOR (if I had a photographic memory, I'd rewrite and sign my name to it, it was a fair assessment) **BUT here is a cached version from a commentor.

- The Accordance blog has summarized the shootout, but decided for this post not to answer Heiser's critiques.

- Another summary of the shootout by Tony W. Cartledge

- A critical view of the shootout and comparative reviews in general (I totally disagree fyi)

- Some thoughts by Pat McCullough. He certainly doesn't buy into the extremeness of Heiser's statements. Do take note of Chris Heard's comments on the post as well, which succinctly states why Logos will not make much of a dent on the Mac platform.

For my part I don't disagree with Heiser that Logos has the most impressive library for books, I'm very impressed with the syncing abilities of Logos, and I do think that syntactical databases are an important thing and Logos currently owns the yard. Important to note, however, is that Accordance is currently preparing a syntactical database, so it is not like Logos is holding the light and everyone else is fumbling around in the darkness- Accordance is well aware of the importance of this and it is in the works.

One thing struck me as odd, this quote: "And the means of searching these titles is superior as well due to under-the-hood issues." The "titles" refer to books, commentaries, etc. I don't have Logos 4 so I will have to see this- otherwise I'll have to state that this is just plain wrong. The usability of Accordance book modules from my experience is unmatched and much faster. So for my part, I do hope to see another post by Heiser to explain this comment some more. I am, after all, open to being corrected.

I'll try and keep this post updated as more discussion follows.