MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Freda

Jim Chapman · 06-06-2010, 05:25 PM

I've just uploaded a new (102) build of the the Freda 2.0 beta. I've emailed details out to all my panel of beta-testers (I think) - so if you want to receive it, but haven't, please email me at home@jim-chapman.net.

I think it might be worth a word or two on how and why Freda uses storage and memory space on the device, because it's clearly creating some complications.

Here is an over-simplified story: A WM phone has 3 kinds of memory:
1) Program Memory
2) Storage Memory
3) Storage Card
These names are silly, but they are the ones that you'll see on the phone's memory manager screen.
(1) and (2) are like the RAM memory on your PC, except that the content is preserved when the phone is switched off.
(1) is dedicated for the use of running programs; when a program needs 'scratchpad' space, it asks the operating system, and it will be given some of the 'Program Memory'. You, the user, cannot put files in this kind of memory. When Freda complains it has run out of memory, this is the type of memory it is complaining about (it means that the operating system has refused Freda's request for an additional allocation of 'scratchpad' space - there can be all kinds of reason why the operating system might do that).
(2) is the space you normally see in a file explorer on your phone. If you save files to \my documents\..., this is the place they will go. Normally, there is a very limited supply of this kind of memory (maybe a couple of hundred MBs). If you get a message saying that you've run out of storage memory, it means this is full up. It's exactly like the situation where you've filled up the hard disc on your PC. The \Program Files\Freda\ folder is in this type of space, and - because Freda by default keeps its temp files under that folder - you're very much at risk of exhausting your storage memory, unless you tell Freda to keep its temp files somewhere else.
(3) is like an external disc pack on your phone - it's a large supply of additional memory space that works exactly like (2), except that it's (a) a bit slower to access (b) much more copious. Normally you can find it on your phone by looking for a folder with a name like "\Storage Card". If it was always called 'Storage Card' I'd have made Freda put its temp files here - but there are many variants of the name (even in English, never mind the various other languages of the world!).

When Freda opens an epub file, it will create temporary files (in whatever location - 2, or preferably 3 - that you told it to use). It will take roughly as much space as the contents of the EPUB would, in unzipped form (note: an EPUB file is just a ZIP-compressed archive). A 2MB epub contains about 10MB of data in unzipped form. If you view the same file using many different font sizes and settings, this will multiply the amount of temporary space that Freda uses (because tempoary files will be created for each variant of settings that you're using). Freda frees up the temp space for a book when it's removed from the bookshelf (either automatically, as the bookshelf discards its oldest entry once it gets to 20, or manually when you tap 'forget book'). Bottom line: Freda needs quite a lot of elbow room - say 100-200 MB of Storage Card space at a minimum.

If this turns out to be a major problem for many people, I can add features that might help (the most obvious being to let you set a lower limit for the maximum size of the bookshelf).

Hope these comments are helpful.

Thanks for using Freda,

Jim

06-06-2010, 05:25 PM	#276
Jim Chapman Addict Posts: 310 Karma: 2025434 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Lumia 950 Phone	I've just uploaded a new (102) build of the the Freda 2.0 beta. I've emailed details out to all my panel of beta-testers (I think) - so if you want to receive it, but haven't, please email me at home@jim-chapman.net. I think it might be worth a word or two on how and why Freda uses storage and memory space on the device, because it's clearly creating some complications. Here is an over-simplified story: A WM phone has 3 kinds of memory: 1) Program Memory 2) Storage Memory 3) Storage Card These names are silly, but they are the ones that you'll see on the phone's memory manager screen. (1) and (2) are like the RAM memory on your PC, except that the content is preserved when the phone is switched off. (1) is dedicated for the use of running programs; when a program needs 'scratchpad' space, it asks the operating system, and it will be given some of the 'Program Memory'. You, the user, cannot put files in this kind of memory. When Freda complains it has run out of memory, this is the type of memory it is complaining about (it means that the operating system has refused Freda's request for an additional allocation of 'scratchpad' space - there can be all kinds of reason why the operating system might do that). (2) is the space you normally see in a file explorer on your phone. If you save files to \my documents\..., this is the place they will go. Normally, there is a very limited supply of this kind of memory (maybe a couple of hundred MBs). If you get a message saying that you've run out of storage memory, it means this is full up. It's exactly like the situation where you've filled up the hard disc on your PC. The \Program Files\Freda\ folder is in this type of space, and - because Freda by default keeps its temp files under that folder - you're very much at risk of exhausting your storage memory, unless you tell Freda to keep its temp files somewhere else. (3) is like an external disc pack on your phone - it's a large supply of additional memory space that works exactly like (2), except that it's (a) a bit slower to access (b) much more copious. Normally you can find it on your phone by looking for a folder with a name like "\Storage Card". If it was always called 'Storage Card' I'd have made Freda put its temp files here - but there are many variants of the name (even in English, never mind the various other languages of the world!). When Freda opens an epub file, it will create temporary files (in whatever location - 2, or preferably 3 - that you told it to use). It will take roughly as much space as the contents of the EPUB would, in unzipped form (note: an EPUB file is just a ZIP-compressed archive). A 2MB epub contains about 10MB of data in unzipped form. If you view the same file using many different font sizes and settings, this will multiply the amount of temporary space that Freda uses (because tempoary files will be created for each variant of settings that you're using). Freda frees up the temp space for a book when it's removed from the bookshelf (either automatically, as the bookshelf discards its oldest entry once it gets to 20, or manually when you tap 'forget book'). Bottom line: Freda needs quite a lot of elbow room - say 100-200 MB of Storage Card space at a minimum. If this turns out to be a major problem for many people, I can add features that might help (the most obvious being to let you set a lower limit for the maximum size of the bookshelf). Hope these comments are helpful. Thanks for using Freda, Jim Last edited by Jim Chapman; 06-06-2010 at 05:27 PM.