pReader (an eBook Reader for Palm-DOC files)

[Quintus]

Originally Posted by hankbuddy

Hi,

Thanks for the great app. My one (hopefully) simple request would be to make the swipe gesture for turning pages reversible. It seems more intuitive to me to swipe from right to left to go forward in the book, as I would if turning the pages of a physical book. Although I must say I am liking the tap method of turning pages more than I thought I would.

I disagree. Why are you swiping horizontally? I swipe vertically (up/down) and I find it very intuitive. Would love to see auto-scroll implemented at some time though.

[thekarens]

You swipe right to left because that's how you'd do it if you were reading a real book. Up and down is a pain to me, literally in the wrist, as well as in the mind.

[Jappus]

Originally Posted by hankbuddy

My one (hopefully) simple request would be to make the swipe gesture for turning pages reversible.

It is indeed rather easy to implement. I'll add a customization option in the next version. Autoscroll will also be implemented, but not in the very next version, since it's a good deal more complex, as I've already pointed out.

[hankbuddy]

Originally Posted by Jappus

It is indeed rather easy to implement. I'll add a customization option in the next version. Autoscroll will also be implemented, but not in the very next version, since it's a good deal more complex, as I've already pointed out.

Thanks!

[prubin]

Originally Posted by mook9800

Sorry to bother you. I have installed preader. Since I had Classic installed & ereader installed on that, preader recognized the book. When I tapped Loal an e book File it opened in gibberish. Do you have any suggestions.
Thanks

Works now. Wonderful! But how did you get preader to find books in Classic? It does not find mine.

[Quintus]

First glitch I've noticed so far. When you try to go back a page, there seems to be a problem in that you lose some text. It is as if the go back command is going back slightly too far and then when you go forward again, you've lost text in the transition. Strange. Anyone else notice this? I'm reading ereader books with DRM.

Edit: Just noticed that this is a "known issue" listed in the OP.

[acraniotes]

Originally Posted by Quintus

First glitch I've noticed so far. When you try to go back a page, there seems to be a problem in that you lose some text. It is as if the go back command is going back slightly too far and then when you go forward again, you've lost text in the transition. Strange. Anyone else notice this? I'm reading ereader books with DRM.

Yup, this happens to me as well, though in reverse; every couple of pages or so I lose text and have to back up and then go forward again to "reset" the offending page. Also, when attempting to load more than one DRM book, sometimes the program crashes, and uninstalling/reinstalling is the only way to get it work it again.

Is the aforementioned a pain? Yeah, but pReader is the only game in town, and I'm willing to put up with a few bugs if it means that I can finally read my bought and paid for books on my Pre. I'll be curious to see just how good this program is by the time eReader shows its yellow belly 'round these parts. I'm betting that pReader will compare quite favorably.

Regards,
Adam

[Quintus]

Agreed! I love this program as it has brought the ability to read ereader books by way of a native WebOS app. I am reporting the glitch to help in future updates. Ereader should be ashamed that they have yet to release anything for the Pre. Even a basic ereader would have been preferable to nothing at all!

Once again a big thank you to the developer of Preader!

[swtmelrose]

Can anyone help me? Where do I copy my book files to on my Pre? When I open PReader it does not find any files.

Thanks.

[prubin]

Font preferences do not work. The font is italic and not bold, but I have gold and not italic checked. I have closed and opened the program several times with various checks, but cannot get it to work. Bold was working, but stopped; it has almos always been italic but that has never been checked. Reading a ficitonwise book.

[Quintus]

Originally Posted by swtmelrose

Can anyone help me? Where do I copy my book files to on my Pre? When I open PReader it does not find any files.

Thanks.

In the partition accessible by USB, I just created a folder called "Preader" and installed my ebooks in that folder. Worked like a charm.

[conum]

@Jappus
thanks for your detailed answer.
I didn't want to nag or so, can wait for better working app.
:-)

[retrobits]

Originally Posted by Quintus

First glitch I've noticed so far. When you try to go back a page, there seems to be a problem in that you lose some text. It is as if the go back command is going back slightly too far and then when you go forward again, you've lost text in the transition. Strange. Anyone else notice this? I'm reading ereader books with DRM.

Yeah, been noticing this for a little while. Just checked in a fix for this (rev 45), should be working correctly next release.

[Jappus]

Originally Posted by prubin

Font preferences do not work. The font is italic and not bold, but I have gold and not italic checked. I have closed and opened the program several times with various checks, but cannot get it to work. Bold was working, but stopped; it has almos always been italic but that has never been checked. Reading a ficitonwise book.

Mhhhm, that's strange. In the properties dialog, there should be an example text. Does it display the correct settings?

If not, have you tried removing & reinstalling the app? That should reset the global properties to their defaults, without touching your library & reading position.

Additionally, EReader books have their own rich text markup (bold, italic, underlined, etc. pp.). It is possible that its markup opens a bold/italic tag and forgets to close it. In that case, pretty much all the text will be rendered in the style defined by the open tag.

Simply put: do the font settings work with other eBook / text files? You can easily check that by opening a simple text file.


Thanks.

[prubin]

Originally Posted by Jappus

Mhhhm, that's strange. In the properties dialog, there should be an example text. Does it display the correct settings?

If not, have you tried removing & reinstalling the app? That should reset the global properties to their defaults, without touching your library & reading position.

Additionally, EReader books have their own rich text markup (bold, italic, underlined, etc. pp.). It is possible that its markup opens a bold/italic tag and forgets to close it. In that case, pretty much all the text will be rendered in the style defined by the open tag.

Simply put: do the font settings work with other eBook / text files? You can easily check that by opening a simple text file.


Thanks.

Text in preferences is OK. Other files OK. Deleted and reinstalled, still not right. I guess it is an EReader setting.

[goldyman]

This app just keeps getting better and better. So far, eReader DRMs have opened and performed very well.

One silly question, and apologies in advance if I have missed it in this forum: How do you set the Key Down and Key Up keys? I've tried various things in the Prefs but none seem to stick.

[Jappus]

Originally Posted by goldyman

One silly question, and apologies in advance if I have missed it in this forum: How do you set the Key Down and Key Up keys? I've tried various things in the Prefs but none seem to stick.

Yeah, there is a slight bug in v0.6.1 that prevents the correct keys to be recognized. It's already fixed in the SVN repository and the fix will be in the next version, which will go live as soon as I've fixed the above mentioned crashes.

Interestingly enough, I can't reproduce the crashes on the Emulator, but I can more or less reproduce them on the device. It seems to be a nasty timing error or a race condition which doesn't happen on the Emulator since it's at least an order of magnitude faster.


P.S:
As for the general way to edit the scoll keys in the next version: Tapping one of the buttons (labeled "Key Next" and "Key Prev" in the next version) will activate a key listener and gray-out the tapped button. Then you simply press the key you want to associate with scrolling (the defaults are the spacebar for next page and the period for previous page). As soon as you pressed it, both buttons are reactivated.

Of course, if you've tapped the wrong button, you can simply tap the other one and associate next key with that direction instead.

[Jappus]

Good news everyone!

I just released the new version v0.6.2. It adds support for adding/editing metadata of the library. With it you can fine-tune how the book is displayed in the library and select categories for the books. This way, you can have different library lists for Fiction, Fantasy, Biographies, Documentation or whatever. The sky's the limit, really. Just tap&hold the entry and a context menu should pop up. Do note that the delete button currently does nothing. It will get its correct function in the next version.

Additionally, I fixed various bugs and crashes. For example, I can't reproduce the crash-and-hang bug upon adding files anymore. Of course, that doesn't mean that it isn't there anymore, just that I can't reproduce it.

Attention:
If you use eReader books, you might want to consider re-adding the files to the library. We've implemented a richer support for the rich text in those books and fixed a slight error that prevented certain characters from being displayed. Do note though that this will reset your current position in the book, so write it down / remember it before you delete/re-add the book. You don't have to re-add them, but certain books should look better now. Especially those who were hit by the "all-italics / all-bold" bug. When you re-add the book, the error should auto-magically go away.



Happy reading!

[kigmatzomat]

This is great! Thanks Jappus.

[Jonathan I Ezor]

Question: given that eReader's DRM uses the purchaser's *credit card* number as the decoding key, can you clarify how and where the eReader DRM decoding is done in pReader, and what happens to that key after it's used? Thanks. {Jonathan}