New Text Reader - Greader2x

[Coder]

I've just uploaded Version 0.1 of GReader2X to the File Archive. It's available at http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,8,2080

So what is GReader2X?

Well, It aims to be a fully configurable reader, one that allows the user to decide how it looks, what fonts are used and how it's controlled.
[cut]
Here's a list of current features:

Can use any TTF font
Can set the font size
Can set the font as normal/bold
Can set the font color
Can set the background color
Can set the status bar background color
Wraps lines at spaces
Fully configurable keys
Automatically opens the last document when run
Saves your position in the document

OK, that sounds pretty good, so what's the catch? Well, at the moment you need to manually edit the CFG file to change any of the setting, which is, I admit, a pain. I have plans to add a built in config routine but since it's usable now, I thought I'd get it out there and see if anyone thinks it's worth continuing with

By default the controls are:

Joystick up - up one line
Joystick Down - down one line
Y - up One Page
X - Down one page
Select - GO to File Chooser
Start - Exit GReader2X

Please give it a try and report any bugs.

Coder.[/cut]

 

[Zenny]

very promising! although buggy, first thing i noticed with the default settings is when you read the readme file and scroll down it doesn't go past 90% don't have any clue why. Other than that looks really good good job

 

[Coder]

very promising! although buggy, first thing i noticed with the default settings is when you read the readme file and scroll down it doesn't go past 90% don't have any clue why. Other than that looks really good good job

Thanks.

The percentage thing should only happen if you page down the file, scrolling down a line at a time should work. The reason is it won't let you page down any more once the end of the file is on screen (the percentage is calculated on the line that's at the top of the screen).

It's an easy fix though. I'll do another release in a few days once a few people have found other things.

 

[Coder]

The percentage thing should only happen if you page down the file, scrolling down a line at a time should work.

Or not.

The problem was worse than I thought, oh well.

It's fixed now.

Since this bug pretty much means you can't see the last paragraph of any document, I'll post a new version on the file archive straight away.

Sorry about that.

 

[starpause]

looking forward to trying this! looks awesome from the spec!

 

[mrpham]

AMAZING text reader; I was turned off by the idea of reading ebooks on the GP2X, but boy, this little dandy application sure changed that.

If you can have the next release let you hold down the any of the scroll toggles such as Joystick up/down, X/Y, as opposed to constantly pressing the buttons to get to a desired area of text, that would absolutely marvelous!

 

[Coder]

AMAZING text reader; I was turned off by the idea of reading ebooks on the GP2X, but boy, this little dandy application sure changed that.

Believe it or not, I bought a GP2X mainly for reading books. I wanted a bigger screen than my old Sony Clie.

Imagine my horror to discover that the built in text reader was so bad, and the few third party readers were lacking in features.

If you can have the next release let you hold down the any of the scroll toggles such as Joystick up/down, X/Y, as opposed to constantly pressing the buttons to get to a desired area of text, that would absolutely marvelous!

I'll take a look at that, in theory it should be easy enough, but getting the repeat delay right could be tricky. I've heard there are issues with the SDL timer code.

Still, it's something that would be very usefull, so expect to see it in the next few versions.

First I've got to finish the built in config routines and allow a background image for those who like a richer visual reading experience.

 

[starpause]

finally got a chance to try this and i have a few requests for features:

1) allow more than one button to be assigned to each action in the cfg for example:

PageDown = 14,4

would let you page down with the joystick or the X ... i often read with only one hand and switch which hand i'm using h34r:

2) allow toggle to justify the text (for an example of beautiful, check how CBook for gp2x displays text)

3) autobookmark every X minutes (i fall asleep reading if i'm lucky) edit: after talking with CODER i realize this is already implemented, greader notes your position every time you change pages and syncs that to SD fairly frequently, great!

4) rotate the screen: 0/90/180/270 degrees ... with just one hand i think it's more comfortable to grip the gp2x on it's side, and i think the screen is still wide enough on it's side to fit enough characters to read. optimal column width allows for between 8 and 10 words per line! design.

5) parameters for mainFont LEADING (vertical space between lines) and TRACKING (horizontal space between characters)

and some less critical ideas:

- put comment lines in the config (that way options can be described in the config file, less going back and forth between readme and config)

- alpha value for colors in config (like gmenu has)

- bug? ... i had some fonts with names that were all caps and greader would crash out on startup. when i renamed the fonts to all lower case greader loved them.

edit: how could i forget ... THANK CODER for putting time and energy into an ebook app, fully configurable none the less! this has my vote for most exciting release of the week gp32_console

 

[WhizzBang]

Great work, this looks really promising. There are several text readers which are all better than the standard one, but once you add config and a few more features this could become the definitive reader for GP2x.

 

[Zenny]

I'm not sure whether this is possible... or even sensible to code, but would it be possible to have a search feature? h34r: would be usefull for guides for games to find specific parts of the game :lol: Thanks again for your work, great app.

 

[Coder]

I'm not sure whether this is possible... or even sensible to code, but would it be possible to have a search feature? h34r: would be usefull for guides for games to find specific parts of the game :lol: Thanks again for your work, great app.

Hmm, Don't expect a search facility soon. That would requirean on screen keyboard, something I've been avoiding up to now.

But don't rule it out altogether, there's a few other things higher on the to do list, but I'll add this to the end and we'll see.

 

[goob]

Are you taking donations?

 

[Coder]

Are you taking donations?

Nope. For a start I have no way to do so, and secondly, I'm just doing this because I wanted a decent text reader for my own use.

The source for this will be released when it reches version 1.0, that'll give me time to clean it up so that I'm not too embarrassed for other people to see it

 

[Playdough]

I'm also here to show my support! I love reading on the GP2X, however there is really no text viewer that is up to snuff, especially in terms of features.
Keep up the good work, this is looking promising!

 

[hitbyambulance]

2Xbook is my favorite reader (and it manages Project Gutenberg text files just fine, w/o modification!) - have a look.

 

[starpause]

2Xbook is my favorite reader (and it manages Project Gutenberg text files just fine, w/o modification!) - have a look.

hadn't seen that one before, so i added it to the wiki

http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/Software_Directory#Text_Readers

so many of the readers have fallen out of active development. i'm rooting for Greader because it's focus is customization and it's name is fun one text reader to rule them all!

ps. my buddy jonkie got the bash man pages readable in the links browser ... heh

 

[Parkydr]

If you want a man page reader, I've got xman

 

[WhizzBang]

I have a suggestion for a feature: zip support

Also, what clock speed does Greader run at?

 

[Coder]

I have a suggestion for a feature: zip support

That's on the to do list, along with PalmDoc format.

Also, what clock speed does Greader run at?

GReader only requires speed for the initial processing of each document. The first time you read a document it works out the word wrapping. That can be slow at lower CPU speeds. After that it'll run happily (and quite snappily) at lower speeds.

I've never taken the time to check the minimum speed it'll run at, why not try it at various speeds and report back?

I've just ried this on my Mk2 GP2X, I can't tell then difference paging up/down between 200MHZ and 50MHZ. So I'd say that running at 50MHZ is fine, except for the initial process.

 

[Coder]

Maybe this won't interest many people here, but I had a request from someone to allow a background image in GReader2X.

Here's a couple of images to show what it looks like.

http://www.jhart.ath.cx/pics/gr2x.jpg

http://www.jhart.ath.cx/pics/gr2x2.jpg

http://www.jhart.ath.cx/pics/gr2x3.jpg

Looks pretty good, even if I do say so myself.


Oops, looks like the links don't work. If you want to see the pics, let me know and I'll either send then or find a free host to put them on.