For mac users, Accordance version 8 is now out. It looks like there’s a couple of bugs still being worked through (the universal binary didn’t have the help file for a while), so if you’re keen on getting it maybe wait a couple of days.
To be frank, I’m not that impressed with the feature list. The big one is that it’s now a universal binary, which means that on newer Intel-based macs (read: any mac that has been available in the last 2 years or so) it should run with fewer system resources. That’s good, but I’ve never really noticed it being particularly power-hungry anyway, so it’s one of those features that I probably won’t notice much.
More advanced search features sound cool, but I’m yet to be convinced of their utility. Horizontal panes of bible texts – meh.
And the final thing they’re trumpeting is Unicode import. This means you can type/paste unicode characters into the search field and it will actually work, as opposed to now where it simply doesn’t recognise the characters. Presumably you can still export to unicode, but there is no mention of upgraded fonts, so my frustrations continue. The beautiful fonts used to render Greek and Hebrew within Accordance remain accessible only to those who own Accordance. In order to share work effectively, you need to use a sub-standard font, which is really annoying.
I’m amazed that unicode is still not used internally. I’ve done some coding on mac, and it’s really not that difficult to support as far as the programming tools go. Font creation and modification is not impossible either. There must be an awful lot of legacy code that they’re unwilling to change, and very few programmers, over at Accordance HQ. At some point they’re going to have to strip it back and rework it properly, and the longer they wait, the bigger the job will be.
My conclusion? I’m nowhere near impressed enough to shell out for an upgrade. Feel free to convince me otherwise.
Walking home today I passed an old Greek man sitting out in the sun on a park bench, listening to the Greek news on an old, tiny, black plastic transistor radio. Old habits die hard, it seems.
