Fbreader?


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Karel Jansens

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Since we seem to have entered the coveted "begging for apps" stage, can anyone tell if fbreader already runs on the nigh-on-ready Panda?

It should be in the Angström repositories, but I've been told that means nothing. Suffize to say I need fbreader only marginally less desperately than oxygen and big-buxomed ladies...
 
It is in the Angstrom repository
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/repo/?pkgname=fbreader

It also already runs on the nokia n800 and a lot of other portable devices. So really you can expect this to compile and run on the Pandora without much issue.

There are some dependency and I don't believe the Pandora would include all of them in the base OS. I guess the best would be to have a nice .PND package. Like everything there is no guaranty that someone will package it but it seems pretty likely to me
 
marshal said:
It is in the Angstrom repository
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/repo/?pkgname=fbreader

It also already runs on the nokia n800 and a lot of other portable devices. So really you can expect this to compile and run on the Pandora without much issue.

There are some dependency and I don't believe the Pandora would include all of them in the base OS. I guess the best would be to have a nice .PND package. Like everything there is no guaranty that someone will package it but it seems pretty likely to me
Click to expand...
Heh. I so know it runs on the N800. For two years, it's almost the only way I've been reading books. But as I plan on retiring the Nokia when my Panda -- finally -- arrives, knowing that I can open a Discworld episode whenever I feel the itch, would be a great comfort.

And for those wondering: I scanned and OCR-ed all my paper copies myself.

And no, I won't share. I can't do jail...
 
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Karel Jansens said:
Heh. I so know it runs on the N800. For two years, it's almost the only way I've been reading books. But as I plan on retiring the Nokia when my Panda -- finally -- arrives, knowing that I can open a Discworld episode whenever I feel the itch, would be a great comfort.
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat. I run FBReader on my N800 and can't do without it. It would be nice to have a dictionary program such as StarDict converted at the same time to run on the Pandora as well.
 
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Angstrom repo stuff very often works.. Unoptimized but works. Didn't try it though but surely it'll get a proper port. As to dependancies with ipkg'd, just get the deps too

jeff
 
Great! Yet another reason to get the Pandora :D

I'm doing pretty much all my reading now on my Nokia E90 but will be getting the N900 soon. I think the Pandora compliments either of them greatly.
 
I'd never heard of FBReader. Might have to check it out when my Pandora arrives.

I've been using BookR for the PSP. I can't find any info on any other builds around so planned on having a shot at porting it across. The source is vailable and it seems pretty straight forward. But if FBReader is any good, I'll have to take a look - it may not be worth me doing a port of BookR.
 
FBReader is available for most desktop platforms as well as quite a few portables, so you can have a look at it before your Pandora ships. Last time I used it on Windows it was still in beta (for Windows but not for Maemo) but it worked fine.
http://www.fbreader.org/downloads.php
 
I just tried in on windows XP here at work. It crashed when I added my Star Wars library to the library folder (around 200+ books).

I'll install it on my wifes Asus 701SD eeepc when I get home from work. It's running linux and the screen size (7" is still far bigger than the Pandora) is closer to what I'm likely to be reading from. It'll be good to see how well it works.

It seems a lot more feature packed than BookR. BookR didn't define libraries or anything. You browse to the file, open it, bookmark pages, flip pages, change scaling. BookR supported similar file types, with the addition of PDF and a few others. They worked, but I still found the scaling around with the nub on the PSP to be too much of a pain and ended up converting all my docs to .txt format and using the shoulder buttons to flip pages.
 
I was kinda "Meh" on it thinking "dont we get a word processor on the Pandora, it'll probably read more PDF and TXT format ebooks" then I saw the "rotation" tab in one of the screen shots and almost kissed my screen. I rotate every one of my Ebooks on DS and PSP and was fearing that it was becoming a bit of an undesirable function.
 
Am I the only one who thinks it is a little pointless to make port of FBReader for a device without an e-ink screen?

Signed: The proud owner of an ebook reader ;)
 
WORMSXP said:
Am I the only one who thinks it is a little pointless to make port of FBReader for a device without an e-ink screen?

Signed: The proud owner of an ebook reader ;)
Click to expand...
While it's pretty hard to beat the battery life of e-ink, the technology still has some annoying quirks.

Panda's screen has a resolution of +200 dpi, does colour and sits on top of a device that can do a heck of a lot more than any kindle or ember or whatever.

Besides, didn't His Yuppieness the Jobs state that 10 hours of battery life should be enough? And that reading for extended periods seriously b0rks you cool?
 
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WORMSXP said:
Am I the only one who thinks it is a little pointless to make port of FBReader for a device without an e-ink screen?

Signed: The proud owner of an ebook reader ;)
Click to expand...
I believe you might be. :p

Myself, I get eyestrain and headaches when reading from paper and paper-likes, but I don't when reading from LCDs, so I've no intention of ever purchasing an e-ink device of any sort - that doesn't, however, mean that I don't want to read stuff. :p

(I've got Journey to the West, Treasure Island, and The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar lined up on my SD Card already. I'm quite looking forward to getting stuck into them. :D)
 
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Karel Jansens, you can left an ebook reader on for weeks but battery life is the less important advantage of the e-ink technology. You are also right when you say the technology has some quirks (grayscale screens and long refreshing times), but it is the best currently available technology for extended reading: as e-ink screens doesn't emit light, they doesn't put any strain in your eyes if you read for an extended period of time. It is the closest experience to reading a paper book and if I have to read tons of technical docs (PDFs & DOCs most of them), I'd rather reading them in a device which doesn't put any strain in my eyes...

Pandora will be a very powerful multi-purpose device, but with that small LCD screen... yes, it is a small screen if you compare with ebook readers' screens and it will emit light, so it won't be very comfortable if you want to read for an extended period of time. Yes, an ebook reader will sucks in everything but reading, so let's use the best device for each task.

//---------------------------//

Prometheus, you are the first person I've heard that has problems reading from paper or e-ink devices and not from LCDs xD
 
WORMSXP said:
Prometheus, you are the first person I've heard that has problems reading from paper or e-ink devices and not from LCDs xD
Click to expand...
Haha, what can I say? I must be unique, I guess. :lol:
 
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Prometheus said:
WORMSXP said:
Prometheus, you are the first person I've heard that has problems reading from paper or e-ink devices and not from LCDs xD
Click to expand...
Haha, what can I say? I must be unique, I guess. :lol:
Click to expand...

Well, if there are more people with the same "problem" I can understand that those people wanted a dedicated reading app for a non e-ink device like Pandora.

I know two people who loves reading but can't read in their computer monitor more than "half-hour to one-hour" because they get headaches. When one of them saw my ebook reader, he immediately bought one for himself. The other person is saving money for his birthday :D
 
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