10-29-2016, 05:29 AM | #1 |
Wizard
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Retaining position when switching between portrait and landscape
When the reading position is in the middle of a chapter and switching between landscape and portrait (by rotating your iThing), Marvin 3 does not retain the current reading position. Landscape seems to be several screens behind portrait. It may be that landscape is exactly one page behind portrait, and this means it is several screens behind (where one page = several screens).
I don't remember this being a problem with Marvin 2. This behaviour was mentioned before in this forum (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...43&postcount=4) but was buried in another thread, so I thought I would raise it again in a new thread, to hopefully get some feedback from other Marvin users and Kris. |
10-29-2016, 08:32 PM | #2 |
just an egg
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I've posted about this a few times and also emailed Kris. Every time there's an update, I check to see if it's fixed, and .... nope.
Not sure if this means Kris can't figure it out or doesn't consider it to be an issue. Last edited by odamizu; 10-30-2016 at 01:06 PM. |
10-30-2016, 06:01 AM | #3 |
Wizard
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Yes I keep hoping it will get fixed with each release, as it seems such an obvious bug to me. I hope this thread will raise its prominence so Kris will please investigate and fix it.
In switching between portrait and landscape, Marvin seems to be reflowing the text from the beginning of the section/chapter, and this is when the current reading position is lost. It is not always idempotent when you cycle landscape to portrait to landscape. For example:
It now settles down between last page (portrait) and 10 pages left (landscape). We can see that the difference in location is not minor: as much as 10 pages in this example, which can make finding your last reading position quite tricky. I sometimes read in portrait and sometimes in landscape, so it would be really great to have this fixed. Even for people who only read in one mode, this bug could catch them out if they accidentally rotate their iThing when Marvin is open. Last edited by ShellShock; 10-30-2016 at 06:04 AM. |
10-30-2016, 09:32 AM | #4 |
A Hairy Wizard
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Yes, Kris is aware of this issue. It was found during Beta testing and discussed a bit. Part of the problem is that there is no way to determine where on the current screen your eyeballs are looking when you decide to flip orientation. The best any programmer could do is to assume they were on the first paragraph/sentence displayed in that view and then cause that paragraph/sentence to be at the top after rotation. Of course, that solution isn't really what you are asking for, as there will definitely be some "loss of position" after the rotation regardless.
So, I imagine, Kris put this as a lower priority than some other ideas he is working on that would actually have a solution that people will be happy with. In the meantime, my recommendation to avoid getting caught out is to rotate the orientation at the beginning of a chapter/file. You will not lose your position because there is no "reflow error". Also, you can manually select and lock the orientation instead of letting it auto-switch. You won't ever have it switch accidentally. Cheers! |
10-30-2016, 01:31 PM | #5 | |||
just an egg
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Quote:
Quote:
Also, no other app I've used has this problem, including Kindle for iOS, Hyphen, MapleRead, Bluefire Reader. So some programmers have clearly figured out how to make this work. Quote:
Last edited by odamizu; 10-31-2016 at 08:16 PM. |
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10-30-2016, 02:42 PM | #6 | |
Wizard
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Quote:
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10-30-2016, 06:10 PM | #7 | ||
A Hairy Wizard
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Quote:
Quote:
In the notional fix I mentioned above (top paragraph/sentence remains at the top) you could conceivably still see a couple screens difference in your "position" based on those factors and where your eyeball was looking on that screen (more error if you were near the bottom of the screen than near the top). I would also be very interested, from a programming perspective, to know how all those other apps are able to tell which word I'm looking at in order to not have reflow error when you change orientation I wonder if they are secretly spying on me with my own camera and doing major geometry math with my eyeball orientation Have you tried the work-around steps I mentioned above? They do work quite well - and it allows you to enjoy all of the other benefits of M3 until a fix can be determined. Cheers, |
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10-30-2016, 10:10 PM | #8 | |
just an egg
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I have supported Marvin since the beginning, purchasing all versions, bugs and all, because I want it to continue to thrive and grow, even if it's not currently meeting my needs. Last edited by odamizu; 10-31-2016 at 08:34 PM. |
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10-31-2016, 04:36 AM | #9 | |
Wizard
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So my main workaround is to just put up with it, but I would be very grateful if it was fixed, as this is top of my personal wish list (if fact I can't think of anything else I would want changing). |
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