MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Converting *big* multi-file HTML doc for PRS-505 reader

philpem · 07-16-2009, 06:49 PM

Hi guys,
I'm a software developer by trade, using various programming languages (mainly C, PHP and C++, but some others as well). I also have a notoriously bad memory, and tend to end up scrabbling through my collection of half a dozen or so quick-reference guides, and the documentation for the languages I use. So I figure, I have a PRS505 (Sony e-Reader), so why not put some of them on there...

Well, I've spent a good chunk of the last two days trying to convert the PHP documentation (the 5MB multi-file version with the table of contents) to LRF format so I can read it on the Reader. I started out by using Calibre, drag-dropping the index.html file onto the main window and converting it to LRF. This left me with a ~6-page LRF containing a great conversion of the TOC, but nothing else.

So I moved on a bit, and tried using the conversion utility (html2lrf) directly. I've done this on Windows XP (32-bit) and Ubuntu 8.10 (64-bit), in both cases with the "reduce memory usage" option turned on and with it off. In all cases, the conversion runs almost to the end ("rationalizing font sizes"), eats ~2GB of RAM, then dies -- Linux kills the converter off, Windows allows it to eat all the RAM it likes, then the OS freezes solid (but not after some impressive graphical effects, like window borders and buttons disappearing).

Does anyone know of any HTML-to-LRF converters that can handle documents as big as the PHP manuals, or any ways to make Calibre do this without eating so much RAM?

The PHP documentation source file I'm using is freely downloadable from http://uk3.php.net/download-docs.php -- I'm using "English, many files, .tar.gz"

Cheers,
Phil.

07-16-2009, 06:49 PM	#1
philpem Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: Sony PRS505	*Converting big* multi-file HTML doc for PRS-505 reader** Hi guys, I'm a software developer by trade, using various programming languages (mainly C, PHP and C++, but some others as well). I also have a notoriously bad memory, and tend to end up scrabbling through my collection of half a dozen or so quick-reference guides, and the documentation for the languages I use. So I figure, I have a PRS505 (Sony e-Reader), so why not put some of them on there... Well, I've spent a good chunk of the last two days trying to convert the PHP documentation (the 5MB multi-file version with the table of contents) to LRF format so I can read it on the Reader. I started out by using Calibre, drag-dropping the index.html file onto the main window and converting it to LRF. This left me with a ~6-page LRF containing a great conversion of the TOC, but nothing else. So I moved on a bit, and tried using the conversion utility (html2lrf) directly. I've done this on Windows XP (32-bit) and Ubuntu 8.10 (64-bit), in both cases with the "reduce memory usage" option turned on and with it off. In all cases, the conversion runs almost to the end ("rationalizing font sizes"), eats ~2GB of RAM, then dies -- Linux kills the converter off, Windows allows it to eat all the RAM it likes, then the OS freezes solid (but not after some impressive graphical effects, like window borders and buttons disappearing). Does anyone know of any HTML-to-LRF converters that can handle documents as big as the PHP manuals, or any ways to make Calibre do this without eating so much RAM? The PHP documentation source file I'm using is freely downloadable from http://uk3.php.net/download-docs.php -- I'm using "English, many files, .tar.gz" Cheers, Phil.