Bluefire reader app - Page 50

Micah · 11-15-2011, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What are the downsides to the jailbreak fix? Can they be worse then my iPhone rebooting?

The app quits whenever you switch to another app. You have to re-launch it to start reading again. Not the worst thing in the world, but we don't want to have diminished feature set for the vast majority of users who do not modify their operating system. You could just use the Libri app, yes?... Same app other than that specific difference.

Micah · 11-15-2011, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What are the downsides to the jailbreak fix? Can they be worse then my iPhone rebooting?

Does Backgrounder not fix the problem for you?

Barty · 11-16-2011, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

Does Backgrounder not fix the problem for you?

Backgrounder causes problems In other asps.

And it's really not necessary now that iOS has pseudo multitasking.

I'm curious why bluefire has this conflict while other apps don't.

Micah · 11-16-2011, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barty

Backgrounder causes problems In other asps.

And it's really not necessary now that iOS has pseudo multitasking.

I'm curious why bluefire has this conflict while other apps don't.

I don't actually know the nitty gritty details (I'm basically a UX guy) - but our devs do. I assume it has something to do with the C++ libraries that make up the guts of the app. Most iOS apps that support either PDF or EPUB leverage built-in native iOS features/API's. In order to support Adobe's DRM, our app has to do all of the PDF rendering and EPUB rendering itself - from scratch essentially (e.g. the EPUB renderer in Bluefire Reader essentially is a custom-purpose web browser for eBooks - with full CSS support, etc). It is *many*, *many* thousands of lines of code. Far more complexity than 99.9% of apps including games.

Micah · 11-16-2011, 09:18 AM

For example, enabling text selection in most apps would take a developer a minute or two, and a couple lines of code. In Bluefire Reader, it is many thousands of lines of code, as we can't use iOS text selection API's.

Barty · 11-16-2011, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

I don't actually know the nitty gritty details (I'm basically a UX guy) - but our devs do. I assume it has something to do with the C++ libraries that make up the guts of the app. Most iOS apps that support either PDF or EPUB leverage built-in native iOS features/API's. In order to support Adobe's DRM, our app has to do all of the PDF rendering and EPUB rendering itself - from scratch essentially (e.g. the EPUB renderer in Bluefire Reader essentially is a custom-purpose web browser for eBooks - with full CSS support, etc). It is *many*, *many* thousands of lines of code. Far more complexity than 99.9% of apps including games.

Good grief. Thwts unbelievable. You mean in order to use adobe sdk whatever to read drm books, you have to write your own webkit? I'm amazed it runs as well as it does!

I thought basically the adobe sdk does it all for you and you're writing the UI wrapper.

Micah · 11-16-2011, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barty

Good grief. Thwts unbelievable. You mean in order to use adobe sdk whatever to read drm books, you have to write your own webkit? I'm amazed it runs as well as it does!

I thought basically the adobe sdk does it all for you and you're writing the UI wrapper.

To clarify, the sdk *is* those C++ libraries I was talking about. We did not have to write it all ourselves -thank goodness. That said, porting those Libraries to work on iOS (Objective C environment), or Android (Java environment) is a substantial task that goes far beyond just UI "wrapper". e.g. making text selection work nicely on iOS still took us weeks of work -after porting the core libraries. Overall, it took a very skilled/experienced team about 1 year to build Bluefire Reader. The point I was trying to make was in relation to your question of why we have challenges with modified versions of the OS that some other apps don't have - which is in part due to the fact that we are not using "built-in" features of iOS for rendering, and the code is a complex mix of C++ and Objective C code.

JSWolf · 11-28-2011, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

Does Backgrounder not fix the problem for you?

Backgrounder uses system resources, memory and on an 8GB iPhone 3g, I don't want to use the resources needed for Backgrounder. It just isn't needed. Nothing else I use is broken on my jailbroken phone.

JSWolf · 11-28-2011, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

The app quits whenever you switch to another app. You have to re-launch it to start reading again. Not the worst thing in the world, but we don't want to have diminished feature set for the vast majority of users who do not modify their operating system. You could just use the Libri app, yes?... Same app other than that specific difference.

So put out a version for those of us jailbroken. Having to reun the app is way better then having to reboot the phone.

If you needs any testers, I'd be happy to give it a go.

ChristopherTD · 11-29-2011, 07:32 AM

A heads-up that Bluefire Reader 1.6 is available for iOS in the App Store.
Improvements to PDF handling seems to be main feature, along with a score of tweaks and minor fixes.
Looks good so far on my iPad...

murraypaul · 11-29-2011, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So put out a version for those of us jailbroken. Having to reun the app is way better then having to reboot the phone.

As he said, there already is a different version with this fixed: Libri.

Micah · 11-29-2011, 09:53 AM

There's improvements in 1.6 in terms of how the library is "built" so it should now handle bulk imports a bit better. The more fun stuff is coming in 1.7 - including swipe up down for brightness. Shooting for December

1611mac · 11-29-2011, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micah

There's improvements in 1.6 in terms of how the library is "built" so it should now handle bulk imports a bit better. The more fun stuff is coming in 1.7 - including swipe up down for brightness. Shooting for December

Micah · 11-29-2011, 09:40 PM

One fun feature did make it into this more "functional" update - edit meta data! You can now change the Title, Author, Publisher of any book. I doubt I'll use that much, but we had lots of requests, and we listen.

soondai · 11-30-2011, 06:11 PM

Downloaded it and it looks good. Glad to see internal links working.

Any chance of a dictionary in the December update? Doesn't ios5 have one built in that you can use? If you do include it, it'd be great if the definition pop up were dark if you are in night mode.

I'm switching back to this from Stanza. It's a good app and looks to be only getting better.

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11-16-2011, 09:18 AM	#740
Micah Bluefire Reader dude Posts: 329 Karma: 1089156 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Seattle Device: Ipad	For example, enabling text selection in most apps would take a developer a minute or two, and a couple lines of code. In Bluefire Reader, it is many thousands of lines of code, as we can't use iOS text selection API's.

11-29-2011, 07:32 AM	#745
ChristopherTD Addict Posts: 343 Karma: 1010002 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: London. UK Device: Marvin Reader on iPad Air (via Calibre)	A heads-up that Bluefire Reader 1.6 is available for iOS in the App Store. Improvements to PDF handling seems to be main feature, along with a score of tweaks and minor fixes. Looks good so far on my iPad...

11-29-2011, 09:53 AM	#747
Micah Bluefire Reader dude Posts: 329 Karma: 1089156 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Seattle Device: Ipad	There's improvements in 1.6 in terms of how the library is "built" so it should now handle bulk imports a bit better. The more fun stuff is coming in 1.7 - including swipe up down for brightness. Shooting for December

11-29-2011, 09:40 PM	#749
Micah Bluefire Reader dude Posts: 329 Karma: 1089156 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Seattle Device: Ipad	One fun feature did make it into this more "functional" update - edit meta data! You can now change the Title, Author, Publisher of any book. I doubt I'll use that much, but we had lots of requests, and we listen.

11-30-2011, 06:11 PM	#750
soondai Guru Posts: 672 Karma: 1109784 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Paperwhite	Downloaded it and it looks good. Glad to see internal links working. Any chance of a dictionary in the December update? Doesn't ios5 have one built in that you can use? If you do include it, it'd be great if the definition pop up were dark if you are in night mode. I'm switching back to this from Stanza. It's a good app and looks to be only getting better.

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