PRS-500 Letter to Sony requesting LRF format

[cmumford]

I was considering writing a letter to Sony requesting that they publish the LRF format and open it up. I think this letter would have a greater chance of success if it was authored by the developers of this forum instead of just by me.

Are any of you interested in co-authoring this letter with me? I'm hoping to get enough of a buy-in so that we can hostly sign the document something like "The Sony Reader developer community".

Thoughts?

[Laurens]

One of the suggestions I've given in response to their BBeB content beta program was to publish the specs of the binary LRF format. (They're pretty slow in responding, though.)

The specs for the XML-based LRS format are already public, but those require the Xylog parser DLL to be converted to LRF and the DLL is not yet officially available.

[kovidgoyal]

But if they publish the specs then what will we do for entertainment on weekends?

[cmumford]

Originally Posted by Laurens

One of the suggestions I've given in response to their BBeB content beta program was to publish the specs of the binary LRF format. (They're pretty slow in responding, though.)

I'd never heard of that program before now. Is there a way to request participation?

Originally Posted by Laurens

The specs for the XML-based LRS format are already public, but those require the Xylog parser DLL to be converted to LRF and the DLL is not yet officially available.

Yeah, I saw this and have found the document useful in understanding what's going on in the document from a high level. However, I believe that the Xylog parser DLL that everybody's using is an old one that suffers from the following limitations:

• I believe it has problems creating large files.
• It's slow.
• When there's an error it's very difficult to figure out what's wrong with the LRS.
• It's a native Windows DLL
• I doubt that Sony really allows anybody to redistribute that DLL as part of their product. I haven't found anything anywhere that says one way or ther other just yet.

[cmumford]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

But if they publish the specs then what will we do for entertainment on weekends?

Look at all the Python code you get to write then

[Laurens]

Originally Posted by cmumford

I'd never heard of that program before now. Is there a way to request participation?

Well, it's been a while since I received the docs and tools. Not sure if you can still sign up now. (PM me for the e-mail address.) It's my understanding that the BBeB information will be made public later, but don't hold me to that.

Originally Posted by cmumford

Yeah, I saw this and have found the document useful in understanding what's going on in the document from a high level. However, I believe that the Xylog parser DLL that everybody's using is an old one that suffers from the following limitations:

• I believe it has problems creating large files.
• It's slow.
• When there's an error it's very difficult to figure out what's wrong with the LRS.
• It's a native Windows DLL
• I doubt that Sony really allows anybody to redistribute that DLL as part of their product. I haven't found anything anywhere that says one way or ther other just yet.

It may, indeed, be an older version with some issues.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by cmumford

I was considering writing a letter to Sony requesting that they publish the LRF format and open it up. I think this letter would have a greater chance of success if it was authored by the developers of this forum instead of just by me.

Are any of you interested in co-authoring this letter with me? I'm hoping to get enough of a buy-in so that we can hostly sign the document something like "The Sony Reader developer community".

Thoughts?

If you're just asking for a petition of names, count me in. Probably wouldn't be of much use in the general coding but I do have some experience dealing with various image formats for the picture content.

[SeNS]

Originally Posted by cmumford

Thoughts?

I think it's not necessary; binary LRF format now totally (OK, probably on 99%) clear. Two russian guys wrote a two different lrs2lrf converters; not a python but native Win32 executables. I don't know about their plains to post/open sources for programs but you can ask.

Here is the url (you should translate thread from Russian to English using bablefish or other on-line translators): http://www.the-ebook.org/forum/viewt...?p=65125#65125

[obelix]

Originally Posted by cmumford

[*]It's slow.[*]When there's an error it's very difficult to figure out what's wrong with the LRS.[/list]

Both are already solved. There are two "homemade" parsers available (both are working 30-100 times faster than XYLogParser:

1st works for Reader (by <-=AlexXF=-), but not for Librie:
http://www.mailutilities.com/lrsparser.zip

2nd, for both Reader and Librie:
http://www.msh-tools.com/ebook/MSH_LRSParser.zip


There ia a lrfFIX program that fixes LRF files created with XYLogParser, the problem was in improper calculation of xOr key for scrampling by XYLogParser.

http://www.msh-tools.com/ebook/fixLRF.exe

Book Designer with new parsers becomes almost perfect solution for LRF books, with 2 clicks the LRF book can be created in less than a minute from html, rtf, txt, doc, fb2, rb,...

Check here:
http://www.bookdesigner.org/wordpress/

New version with sizable books is expected soon (we all hope).

[scotty1024]

I agree: no need to bother Sony.

I'll finish upgrading my Java parser code to Sony Reader level and post the source.