Hacks Kindle Percentage Bar Hack 25.4% instead of 25%

[jeromedevine]

Hello mobileread community, especially those using Kindle 3.

Would anyone manage this challenge of making for the Kindle 3 (3G - UK/EU) an 'Update-style' hack (like the screensaver hack) that would allow to give an extra decimal point figure to the percentage progress number on the Kindle 3?

For example you have a book and now it shows only 25% read. You go forward 3 or 4 pages and it keeps to still show 25% read. Would you be able to make it through a hack to show 25.4% read. Then you press for the next page and it goes to say 25.6% read. It should be easy. By taking the last location indicator (i.e. the location of the last text of the page shown in the progress bar) and divide it with the number of locations on the right side. I say to use the last location at the end of each page because when you arrive to the last page you want it to get to 100%. It should also be rounded up to the first decimal place. Such as if it goes to 25.46% it should read 25.5%.

I made a screenshot and edited it with paint (:P) to show what I mean as an end result.

See Attachment picture further below.


I understand that there are some that don't want it. But that is why they can choose NOT to install this great hack to be!

Really hope that someone can manage to code this hack and make it in an Update-style installer (possibly also making an Uninstaller too... )

It would be great. The gauntlet has been thrown. Who will pick this challenge?! A lot of peaple would appreciate it!

[jeromedevine]

A lot of Karma to who can manage to code this hack!

[Kenneth_irl]

Why do you want it to show percentage with decimals ? I can see that it would be more precise if used as a reference to find a specific point in a book, but that's what locations are for.

[jeromedevine]

Originally Posted by Kenneth_irl

Why do you want it to show percentage with decimals ?

It is more of a satisfaction of reaching a determined percentage mark. Say you are reading War and Peace, and you have been reading for 45 minutes. You see that you have reached 25.9% and you say, okay I will read to 30% because it is almost around the corner.

It is more of making easier the setting of short milestones to encourage reading. I had this hack on the PRS-505 (Sony eReader) and really loved it!

[Kenneth_irl]

Originally Posted by jeromedevine

It is more of a satisfaction of reaching a determined percentage mark. Say you are reading War and Peace, and you have been reading for 45 minutes. You see that you have reached 25.9% and you say, okay I will read to 30% because it is almost around the corner.

It is more of making easier the setting of short milestones to encourage reading. I had this hack on the PRS-505 (Sony eReader) and really loved it!

Okay, I can understand your point of view, mate. I would probably use such a hack myself.

Cheers !

[Barty]

You could try hacking kindle-support@amazon.com . By hacking, I mean sending an email

[jeromedevine]

Originally Posted by Barty

You could try hacking kindle-support@amazon.com . By hacking, I mean sending an email

I think we have to take matters in our own hands on this one. It is very simple for them to do but I don't believe they would do it.

Just like another hack I wish it can be done: When in reading mode, allowing the reader to press 'Spacebar' and/or 'Centre' buttons to go to next page. That would be really cool.

[Jadon]

With the 3.1 firmware, you don't get the Locations info most of the time (though when Menu is pressed, you get it, and possibly Page info as well), leaving the percentage all alone on an otherwise wasted line. Given my druthers, the hack I'd like to see complementing that change would move the percentage down to the line with the progress bar, gaining a bit more vertical room for text.

[Histerius]

All functions that deal with locations have parameters defined as integers, from getElementAt() to nextLocation() and everything inbetween. So, it shouldn't be a problem: the definition should be changed to float, a bit of rounding, a bit of recompiling and that's it. Not that I promise I'll do that I'm programming 20 hours a day for the last three days and I barely see anything, but it should be easy.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by jeromedevine

Just like another hack I wish it can be done: When in reading mode, allowing the reader to press 'Spacebar' and/or 'Centre' buttons to go to next page. That would be really cool.

This would be quite helpful when reading standing up on transit and holding the Kindle with one hand. I find the side buttons are somehow placed too high up on the device.

[kranu]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

This would be quite helpful when reading standing up on transit and holding the Kindle with one hand. I find the side buttons are somehow placed too high up on the device.

Rather, it's most useful when used in landscape.

[jeromedevine]

Originally Posted by Histerius

All functions that deal with locations have parameters defined as integers, from getElementAt() to nextLocation() and everything inbetween. So, it shouldn't be a problem: the definition should be changed to float, a bit of rounding, a bit of recompiling and that's it. Not that I promise I'll do that I'm programming 20 hours a day for the last three days and I barely see anything, but it should be easy.

Hey Histerius, did you by any chance manage to code something?

[yifanlu]

Originally Posted by Histerius

All functions that deal with locations have parameters defined as integers, from getElementAt() to nextLocation() and everything inbetween. So, it shouldn't be a problem: the definition should be changed to float, a bit of rounding, a bit of recompiling and that's it. Not that I promise I'll do that I'm programming 20 hours a day for the last three days and I barely see anything, but it should be easy.

Actually, that's exactly the hard part. First of all, all kindle source is obfuscated at the bytecode level. AKA, you don't know the names of any of the methods, variables, classes, etc. It's most likely found somewhere like com.amazon.impl.framework.Ba.C.a in a method called J(S.d a, K.r b). You'll have a hell of a time decompressing, decompiling, modifying, recompiling, recompressing, uploading, restarting and seeing if you made the right change.

Now, IF you found where the page percentage is stored, the first thing you need to do is change to a float or double, like you said. Now, Java bytecode does this crazy thing where each primitive value uses a different set of commands. Now you need to change all the "iload"s to "fload" "iadd" to "fadd" etc. (Assuming you know where ALL the obfuscated occurrences of the page percentage is found at). Now you need to go to every place that references "Package com.amazon.d, Class C.a, variable h" or something, change all the references from int to double/float (to avoid crashes). There are over 2000 classes to search through, so good luck.

I'm not purposely trying to discourage you (ok, maybe I am), but the reason why there isn't any "hacks" in the kindle framework (all the "hacks" are in the linux backend) is because of the amount of difficulty it takes to do so.