Lucidor ePub Reader

[rogue_ronin]

Might be some folks that would like this new software.

Lucidor.

In my case, I'm looking for just this sort of thing, but without the massive XULrunner dependencies. Too big for my Smart Q7.

But it's heading in the right direction. It's a simple app that does one thing. Not trying to read every format under the sun.

m a r

[kovidgoyal]

You're never going to find an ebook reader app without at least a dependency on either webkit or xulrunner, they're needed to render the HTML in EPUB books.

[Jack Tingle]

Well, except for Freda which uses .NET components like SharpZipLib and the Majestic-12 HTMLParser.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[rogue_ronin]

Got no problem with dependencies -- I think webkit would work fine on the Q7, given that it comes with Midori. xulrunner won't even install, however...

XULrunner's certainly an easy way in, just not particularly elegant or light.

Personally, I'd like to see someone use the dillo renderer (especially as they're finally starting to support CSS.) It's super-fast and extremely light.

I'm sure there are other lightweight engines, too. Anyway, I'm glad to see a standalone ePub reader for Linux -- hope more come soon.

m a r

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by Jack Tingle

Well, except for Freda which uses .NET components like ... the Majestic-12 HTMLParser

Yep, I just use the free Majestic-12 parser to give me the tag types and contents, and decode the content into a simplistic (by design) format of 'lightly decorated text'. Then I have written a (once again, simplistic) renderer that puts that text onto bitmaps.
Advantages of this approach:
- since I wrote the renderer myself I have complete control over how it works (so animated page turning etc. is doable);
- it can be quick to run and light on memory usage.
Disadvantages:
- it's never going to produce beautifully laid out text that looks 'just like the author intended'. But then the author probably didn't intend their book to be read on a screen that was only 4cm wide ...

Anyhow, if you want to see how it was done, this is the source code.