Pocketbook & JabRef & Latex

[Zarathustra]

Hi !

I have a (stupid) questions:

Is it possible to use JabRef (bibtex library manager) on Pocketbook.

It is one thing to have thousands of PDF articles on your ebook reader, which I need at work - but it is another thing to have them easily accessible. So, on my PC I use jabref for sorting and accessing the PDFs - but is the same possible on a Pocketbook ?

Is it possible to run Latex on the pocketbook ?

When I am in the plane or train, I am fed up to pack and unpack my laptop to write ordinary text in ASCII (which is the basis for Latex). But in principle, since the pocketbook runs on Linux, it should be feasible to have a working Latex environment installed onto it ?! Considering the used processor, it should certainly take some time for compiling - but on the plane, I have enough of it.

Any suggestion about these possibilities ?

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Zarathustra

Hi !

I have a (stupid) questions:

Is it possible to use JabRef (bibtex library manager) on Pocketbook.

It is one thing to have thousands of PDF articles on your ebook reader, which I need at work - but it is another thing to have them easily accessible. So, on my PC I use jabref for sorting and accessing the PDFs - but is the same possible on a Pocketbook ?

Is it possible to run Latex on the pocketbook ?

When I am in the plane or train, I am fed up to pack and unpack my laptop to write ordinary text in ASCII (which is the basis for Latex). But in principle, since the pocketbook runs on Linux, it should be feasible to have a working Latex environment installed onto it ?! Considering the used processor, it should certainly take some time for compiling - but on the plane, I have enough of it.

Any suggestion about these possibilities ?

I think, that technically, it might be possible to port those programs to PocketBook. PocketBook does run on GNU Linux, BUT:
1. It has an Arm processor, so everything must be compiled to run especially on PocketBook device. I think they use Embedded Debian as a base for the system. Look up Busybox project, PocketBook runs BusyBox binaries.
2. It has quite limited memory and other resources - such as space on its internal "disk"
3. It uses very special libraries to display things, because the e-ink display is very different from traditional text consoles or graphical output systems. So when porting programs you would have to re-do the entire graphical/textual output, even such simple things as basic text output.
4. Work required to port any of those programs you wish would be HUGE. There are only very few programs ported so far. Some trivial games, terminal emulation software and there is project that provides improved version of FBReader. PocketBook company provides Software Development Kit, together with sources for many important components of the system, but lots of documentation and forums where developers can get meaningful help is in Russian.
5. I suspect that the result would be ssssssssslllllllllllllooooooooowwwwwww, VEEEEEEERY ssssssssslllllllllllllooooooooowwwwwww

There isn't even simple text editor implemented yet, which would be a first step for Latex.
(Yes, you can run vi editor that is part of the BusyBox package in terminal emulator, but the virtual keyboard on my PocketBook 360 lacks Esc key, so it is practically unusable.)

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by kacir

(Yes, you can run vi editor that is part of the BusyBox package in terminal emulator, but the virtual keyboard on my PocketBook 360 lacks Esc key, so it is practically unusable.)

Then maybe 'ed' would work, as long as you have line feed/carriage return. Not for editing LaTeX files, but perhaps for system tuning/rescue operations.