[Alexander Turcic]

Test Results

iSilo

positive:

• ability to copy&paste text (word, screen, page, document)
• global search in all documents and channels
• instantaneous display and scrolling
• perl regex for defining include/exclude pattern
• community available (shameless self-advertisement)
• theoretically unlimited document size
• support for any image size with any color depth
• very stable

negative:

• commercial ($17.95)
• database format undocumented
• only available in English
• doesn't handle forms
• doesn't handle java-scripts
• doesn't support non-html yet common tags like pods://avantgo/back
• no build-in scheduler (implemented since 3.35b1)
• no Internet Explorer integration (implemented since 3.35b1)
• no Unicode (specifically UTF-8 encoding) support
• no multi-threaded download of webpages

Plucker

positive:

• free
• open-source (GPL)
• database format open and documented
• multi-language available
• ability to select line/paragraph spacing (You will see the importance of line spacing for easy reading.)
• ability to copy text (but only export to memopad)
• build-in scheduler
• perl regex for defining include/exclude pattern
• bugs discussion available (http://bugs.plkr.org)
• mailing list available (http://lists.rubberchicken.org/pipermail/plucker-list/)
• date column in document list
• includes ad websites exclusion list
• strike-through feature: shows which links have already been visited

negative:

• documents > 32Kb are fragmented into 32Kb parts (where you get the "click for next page" link at the bottom of each part)
• uncompressed images can only be <60Kb
• no table support (in latest CVS: table support, rudimentary due to limited 60Kb space)
• auto-scrolling cannot keep up with normal reading speed unless scroll speed is set to more pixels, at which point the text becomes too jumpy
• slow screen updates
• slow scroll bar response time
• search text algorithm slow
• change in font causes page to reparse and restart from the top again
• applications lose focus when Plucker updates channels (also in scheduling mode)
• only single URL include pattern
• high ram memory consumption while downloading (Plucker Desktop)
• font support is incomplete for OS5 machines such as Sony NX, NZ, TG, Tungsten
• doesn't do double-density fonts (someone with OS 5 confirm please)
• doesn't handle cookies (allowing, disabling, manual setting)
• doesn't handle forms
• doesn't handle java-scripts
• doesn't support non-html yet common tags like pods://avantgo/back
• no Pocket PC version available
• indentation for bulleted/numbered lists is wrong, the text is not properly aligned
• no Internet Explorer integration
• no Unicode (specifically UTF-8 encoding) support
• no multi-threaded download of webpages