Text Comparison Tool" with Greater Emphasis on Differences (%)

Better highlight the percentage of difference in the text comparison with red font or background color when the difference is greater than "0% different."

Currently, it’s difficult to see where the differences are for two reasons. The different words are in the same blue color as the verse numbers, text titles (versions), and selection of which texts to compare. This causes our eyes to get saturated with blue, making it hard to notice where there are differences in blue words. Additionally, in some cases, the different word is only in a lighter gray instead of blue. I’m not sure, but it seems that when a word is missing in the second text, it’s just struck through in light gray instead of blue, making it difficult to notice the difference.

Because of this, it would be ideal to highlight the percentage of difference with a more noticeable color, for example, "4% different" with a yellow or red background. You could also use a color different from blue for the different words in the text. This way, the tool can be better utilized, and the differences in the texts can be more easily identified, whether in the comparison of Hebrew, Greek, or any other versions.

I made a comparison, as an example, between the texts of Luke 24:47-50 and Jude 4-6 using the Nestle-Aland 27th, SBLGNT (Lexham), and Nestle-Aland 28th texts, in this order due to the publication date of each. To make things easier, here are the L4 links to compare the text with the Greek versions of Luke 24:47-50 (L4) and Jude 4-6 (L4).

The behavior of the text comparison tool can be seen in the attached image. For instance, in Luke 24:50, there's a missing word in the SBLGNT text (4% different) that appears only in gray, making it almost imperceptible for someone comparing a large portion of text, potentially not noticing that there's a difference there. If at least the "4% different" percentage were red or had a yellow background, it would be impossible to miss. Additionally, if the first text, which serves as the basis for comparison, could be marked at the location of the difference, that would also be ideal.

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Donovan R. Palmer

This tool desperately needs worked over. The UI needs updated badly and it would be good to have better visual controls for readability.

I would like for it to have more of a browser mode too and an AI type of prompt to consider texts in my library that I have not added to my comparison.

MJ. Smith

I find it interesting that no one shows the interlinear view:

Donovan R. Palmer

@MJ - While we are discussing this, do you know why certain Bibles don't work or yield a result in this view if they are priority? (i.e. LSB versus NRSVCE) I am sure I am missing something obvious.

Graham Criddle

@MJ - While we are discussing this, do you know why certain Bibles don't work or yield a result in this view if they are priority? (i.e. LSB versus NRSVCE) I am sure I am missing something obvious.

I'm speculating here but the Text Comparison tool uses its own dataset - described here - that is required for the Interlinear mode

When this was published in 2016 it had a list of supported Bibles - along with a statement that more would be added in the future.

It is possible that the LSB (and YLT) has not yet been added.

Anderson Abreu

This tool desperately needs worked over. The UI badly updated badly and it would be good to have better visual controls for readability.
I would like for it to have more of a browser mode too and an AI type of prompt to consider texts in my library that I have not added to my comparison.

I think so too! I admit that there has been an improvement: as far as I can remember, before she used to mark the signs of textual variants (note signs) in the comparison of various Greek texts, and it was very bad when this happened because it gave false differences. But it's a great tool that deserves more complete and in-depth work to make better use of it.

Anderson Abreu

I find it interesting that no one shows the interlinear view:

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Since I don't use this “interlinear” view when comparing vulgar language versions, I ignored it when comparing Greek texts. I liked the result in that case.

But the tool didn't agree to work with the three texts (NA27, SBLGNT and NA28). It only accepted SBLGNT and NA28. Why is that? Why doesn't the NA27 have the morphological markings? So, I tried adding the Byzantine text (Robinson et al) and it worked perfectly. Link L4 to see it in loco.

The result was much better, but I like the comparison columns (verses) because I can read the text of each edition without the breaks caused by the interlinear.

MJ. Smith

This tool desperately needs worked over.

This is actually a tool that was redone more recently than many New Feature: Text Comparison - Logos Forums with some significant enhancements since then Text Comparison Tool Update - Logos Forums But I laughed at myself for thinking it was fairly recently changed ... what's a mere decade or so when you're my age? The primary complaints/suggestions recently have been:

Surprisingly, I can find few examples online for software for text comparison outside applications for text analysis/criticism, plagiarism testing, and version control, so I can't post examples of what Logos might aim for.

Anderson Abreu

The primary complaints/suggestions recently have been:

Fantastic! I'm surprised and wonder how you manage to do all this!? lol

Donovan R. Palmer

The primary complaints/suggestions recently have been:

Wow! These need to be merged into one mega feedback item. I knew of a few of these, but combined with the ones that I did not know, the list of complaints and suggestions is impressive.

Christian Alexander

These need to be merged into one mega feedback item.

I agree. This is a major issue.

Bob Venem

If someone at Logos has access to a copy of Bibleworks, their implementation of Text Comparison meets many of these features. I've been lobbying for the update for a while.