First useable version of the portable scribble merger released.

[thomega]

If you go to http://forge.ocamlcore.org/projects/irextools/, you can download version 0.1 of my portable (Linux, certainly Mac and likely also Windows) scribble merger. There are also some file management utilities in progress.

In this version, I have replaced the baroque algorithm for determining the zoom factor (which was nevertheless not always right) by the zoom factor stored in the metadata.db file. This appears to work reliably. [The baroque algorithm was born before iRex released the source code and I didn't know where the zoom was stored - and I hung onto it for too long].

I've never used iRex' official Windows scribble merger, but from the comments I read here, I'm confident that mine is not much worse.

Please be advised that this is a source release and you have to compile yourself (see the file INSTALL). This should be straightforward for all Linux users. For the benefit of the Mac and Windows crowd, I would be happy if someone prepared binary distributions.

Have fun!

[curbarthedog]

Thanks for the hard work!

If someone could be kind enough to put this together for the PC I would be delighted. THis is something that, having just used the merge function from iRex the other day (and the resulting dreadful results) I am desperate for.

Unfortunately I would have no clue where to start with this.

[adi]

I tried to install this on archlinux 64bit. ocaml and sqlite3 are installed. I did not install any of the ocaml libraries (since I do not know how to, and the install file says that configure script can do that for me). However, I get an error with ./configure

configure: checking for ocaml compiler and tools...
checking for ocamlc... /usr/bin/ocamlc
checking for ocamlopt... /usr/bin/ocamlopt
checking for ocamldoc... /usr/bin/ocamldoc
checking for ocamlmktop... /usr/bin/ocamlmktop
configure: checking for other tools...
checking for wget... /usr/bin/wget
checking for curl... /usr/bin/curl
checking for tar... /bin/tar
checking for bunzip2... /bin/bunzip2
checking for gunzip... /bin/gunzip
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /bin/install -c
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for library containing sqlite3_open... -lsqlite3
configure: checking for CamlPDF installation...
File "conftest.ml", line 2, characters 18-37:
Unbound value Pdfdoc.add_pagetree
configure: error: compilation of CamlPDF test program failed
See `config.log' for more details.

I could not find any more details in config.log. Any ideas on what is going on?

[thomega]

Originally Posted by adi

I did not install any of the ocaml libraries (since I do not know how to, and the install file says that configure script can do that for me). However, I get an error with ./configure

configure: checking for CamlPDF installation...
File "conftest.ml", line 2, characters 18-37:
Unbound value Pdfdoc.add_pagetree
configure: error: compilation of CamlPDF test program failed
See `config.log' for more details.

Any ideas on what is going on?

configure doesn't find the CamlPDF library. You have to invoke it with

./configure --with-ocaml-sqlite3=build --with-camlpdf=build

in order to instruct it to download the sources of OCaml-SQLite3 (SQLite3 bindings for O'Caml, not part of SQLite3) and CamlPDF.

BTW:

./configure --help

explains that, but my suggestion to

./configure --help
./configure [options]
make

at the end of INSTALL are apparently not persuasive enough.

[adi]

Originally Posted by thomega

configure doesn't find the CamlPDF library. You have to invoke it with

./configure --with-ocaml-sqlite3=build --with-camlpdf=build

in order to instruct it to download the sources of OCaml-SQLite3 (SQLite3 bindings for O'Caml, not part of SQLite3) and CamlPDF.

BTW:

./configure --help

explains that, but my suggestion to

./configure --help
./configure [options]
make

at the end of INSTALL are apparently not persuasive enough.

Thanks. I did not see that --with-ocaml-... accepts a build option. Now everything build correctly.

However, unless I again did something stupid, the makefile does not install the binaries into $binbir directory.

[thomega]

Originally Posted by adi

However, the makefile does not install the binaries into $binbir directory.

That's right. I still have to make sure that all shared libraries are properly install too. You know, a working make install target is a big responsibility. It will come around version 0.7, when I have the set of file management utilities complete. I think that most of the low level infrastructure is there, but I still have to decide on the most intuitive semantics for the command line user tools. Any suggestions are welcome.

[adi]

I tried a few commands, and everything seems to be working correctly. Thanks a lot.

I really like the calibration command. I can now see why I do not get accurate scribble function on my DR, the lower two points are way off (maybe because of the way I hold the pen).

I am not sure on what would be a good interface. It depends a lot on what features you end up supporting. The current inteface is quite reasonable, and once things are settled and there is some documentation, it will be fairly easy to use.

[pakiyabhai]

is there anyone who would compile this for 'us' windows novices ?

[thomega]

http://forge.ocamlcore.org/projects/irextools/

This release

• implements more functionality
• has vastly improved SQLite3 update performance (they're not kidding when they say that transactions make a difference ...)
• finally has a `make install' target

Changes: Too many to mention, use the SVN repository ...

[joe.altepeter]

thomega ---

great software. ism works great, and the help screen makes it seem like irext would be really useful. Is there some documentation available for irext in particular? Do you have plans to continue development of these tools?

Ubuntu and the DR1000s seem like a good combination with your tools. Keep up the good work!

cheers,

Joe

[thomega]

Originally Posted by joe.altepeter

great software.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by joe.altepeter

the help screen makes it seem like irext would be really useful.

The stuff that's implemented (cp, mv, rm, ls and parts of chmod) is already quite robust - I use it for real work. I'm not so sure anymore that multiple metadata files (split, merge) were a good idea. I might never implement them. I'm still undecided on storing metadata inside PDFs. So far, I haven't come up with an intuitive semantics for the case that there is more than one pertinent set of metadata.

Originally Posted by joe.altepeter

Is there some documentation available for irext in particular?

The current SVN version has the beginnings of man pages, I plan to complete them.

Originally Posted by joe.altepeter

Do you have plans to continue development of these tools?

Most definitely. During the annual pre-Xmas rush, I couldn't do anything, but gather experience on what works, what not and what would be good to have (NB: suggestions are welcome). Next on my list are bookmark editing and adding and removing empty pages to PDF files for extended notes.

Originally Posted by joe.altepeter

Keep up the good work!

Will do

[harryE123]

windows versiom please!!!

[Angela Fabregues]

I had several problems while installing your merger. But I finally succeeded. Thanks, it's really a great software!

There's a problem with the ocaml sqlite3 installation. Take a look at the config file: OCAML_SQLITE3_URL can't be correctly uncompressed. I changed the link and now it works to me:

#OCAML_SQLITE3_SRC=ocaml-sqlite3-1.2.0
OCAML_SQLITE3_SRC=ocaml-sqlite3-release-1.2.2

OCAML_SQLITE3_TAR=ocaml-sqlite3-1.2.0.tar.gz

#OCAML_SQLITE3_URL=http://www.ocaml.info/ocaml_sources/ocaml-sqlite3-1.2.0.tar.gz
OCAML_SQLITE3_URL=http://trd.no.distfiles.macports.org/caml-sqlite3/ocaml-sqlite3-1.2.0.tar.gz

Thank you again.

[Angela Fabregues]

The file at http://trd.no.distfiles.macports.org...3-1.2.0.tar.gz changed so now:

OCAML_SQLITE3_SRC=ocaml-sqlite3-1.2.0

[jbui]

I am completely nivice in Linux. I would like to install the merger but apart for uncompresing the .tar file I know nothing. Should the merger be installed on the DR or in the Linux machine? Perhaps someone would be patient enough to give me detailed instructions.