Tech Forum

Hey, folks. I've been wondering about using Gospel Library to read earlier editions of the Book of Mormon.

I don't know if this is already a feature, but I'd recommend implementing it as a version control system that can manipulate a standard edition of the Book of Mormon to become previous editions. The changes to the Book of Mormon have been minimal, so it would be more efficient to allow users to download the Book of Mormon, then download the changes necessary to construct an earlier edition. Although, I believe it's all text anyways, so there mustn't be much worry about the efficiency.

By the by, I'm unfamiliar with these forums, so I don't know what sort of community to expect from a religious tech group. What sort of technical know-how and jargon can I expect this audience to grasp?

I think the first issue is that you'd have to convince people there's value in seeing the earlier editions. By in large, all the changes have been to remove errors that have crept in during copying - not a deliberate change or re-interpreting.

This is a user-to-user forum where clerks and leaders help each other with the technical matters relating to their church responsibilities. There is not really a lot of general discussion. We are not even the official help desk, but there is a lot of experience here, and when someone has a technical problem, someone else has probably seen it before.

The main use case for a tool like this would be historical research – so I would recommend sending it as a suggestion to the Church History department (https://history.lds.org/?lang=eng). Personally, I think it would fit in better on the Church History website than in the Gospel Library app. I imagine it could have multiple columns of text side-by-side, or one column of text with notes in the margins.