Freda - ebook reader program for Windows Mobile

[starrigger]

Got it installed, and I see some nice enhancements. I appreciate the more generous options for font size, and opening to the last book read is good, also.

I thought in the last version there was an option to turn off justification. I don't see it now. Oh wait--you have it under book properties, paragraph layout. May I suggest you change the label on that setting to Justification, but with the same options? To me, at least, that would be clearer. Is there any way to set that preference for the application, rather than simply book by book? (I do like the option of a book's preferences overriding the program's, but I'd like to be able to start with my personal default settings.)

Overall, I think this is looking really good!

[jimnutt]

Ok, now that was mildly annoying.. it lost my place in "The Great Hunt" after the upgrade. And I'm having a bit of trouble getting the options to stick, I'll give more info if I get it.

[starrigger]

Ah--yes, I lost my place in what I was reading when I upgraded. And had to reset my options. If you could find a way to make that stuff stick through updates, that would be terrific.

[jimnutt]

I found a few niggly little bits. It would be nice to be able to set the margins on the side, 0 causes the text to run into the bezel on my touch pro, I'd like to be able to set some arbitrary number of pixels as the margin. Pagination also seems considerably slower and I've been getting the busy beach ball whilst reading as well, it kind of blinks. This is at 1200 pages into a 1463 page book. I hate to say it, but in some ways, 1.0 is a bit of a step backward for just reading. What I'd like is the presentation of the previous version with the book management of the new version. On the other hand, it's free, so it's hard to complain too much...

Thanks for the software Jim!

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by jimnutt

I found a few niggly little bits. It would be nice to be able to set the margins on the side, 0 causes the text to run into the bezel on my touch pro, I'd like to be able to set some arbitrary number of pixels as the margin.

On the Application Settings screen (Appearance tab) there is a setting for 'External Leading'. I think that might do what you want.

Originally Posted by jimnutt

Pagination also seems considerably slower and I've been getting the busy beach ball whilst reading as well, it kind of blinks.

Yes, it is slower - mainly because of the CSS style sheet stuff (decoding styles, and then figuring out which attributes go on which HTML elements is heavy work). That should be a one-time hit (it'll be slower to load a book the first time Freda sees it, but it should be quick thereafter).
It will go quite a bit faster if you turn off 'Animations' on the Application Settings/Appearance tab, since that turns off the paginating/loading animations (and drawing those animations is actually quite processor-intensive work).
As for the 'beach ball' I'm not sure why that would be happening. Could you send me a copy of the epub file you were reading when it happened, and I will check it out. Of course, it could be a problem specific to your device (it may be that you're getting an 'application suspend because of low memory' condition, for instance).
Thanks for the feedback,
Jim

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Ah--yes, I lost my place in what I was reading when I upgraded. And had to reset my options. If you could find a way to make that stuff stick through updates, that would be terrific.

Yes I will do that for future updates - but unfortunately in the move from 0.9 to 1.0 I changed too many things.
(and actually one of those changes was to add 'version number' to the settings and bookshelf files, so that I could make those files stick through upgrades!).

Cheers,

Jim

[jimnutt]

Ah, "External Leading" did help on the margins. You might want to rename that option as it's not exactly obvious what it does The first thing I do is turn off the animations (I find them a bit annoying), so that's not the problem.

I'll send you a copy of the book directly, I did have a couple of other apps backgrounded (Twikini and Fring) and the Verizon Touch Pro is not known for its vast memory capacity so that could be the problem.

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by jimnutt

Ah, "External Leading" did help on the margins. You might want to rename that option as it's not exactly obvious what it does .

Well I'm open to suggestions for what I should call it. But I can't call it 'margin' because I already use that word to describe the space above/below/left/right that is inserted by CSS directives.

'leading' is at least the term that properly describes this kind of space around text, albeit it's a slightly obscure piece of printer's jargon.

Thanks for using Freda,

Jim

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by Jim Chapman

Well I'm open to suggestions for what I should call it. But I can't call it 'margin' because I already use that word to describe the space above/below/left/right that is inserted by CSS directives.

You might call it Border. Or better, call it Margin, and the other CSS-defined Margin.

I too found Leading a bit obscure (and I'm a writer!). I always thought of leading as referring to the spacing between lines of typesetting. Never knew it could refer to margins.

[jimnutt]

Originally Posted by Jim Chapman

Well I'm open to suggestions for what I should call it. But I can't call it 'margin' because I already use that word to describe the space above/below/left/right that is inserted by CSS directives.

'leading' is at least the term that properly describes this kind of space around text, albeit it's a slightly obscure piece of printer's jargon.

For the curious, it's called leading because they used strips of lead to separate the lines of type.. (was a typesetter briefly, but used a phototypesetting machine)

Maybe "fixed margins"? Implying a fixed amount of space that surrounds the text regardless of the CSS directives?

[hakan42]

Originally Posted by Jim Chapman

Hi Folks,

It's here: version 1.0 of Freda is now released.

...

See the freda home page for more details, and for alternative download locations.

Hi Jim,

One thing I would love on Freda would be AppToDate support.

Please see http://www.modaco.com/content/apptod...-applications/ for information on apptodate, it really helps me keeping my software as current as possible on my mobile.


Regards,
Hakan

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by starrigger

You might call it Border. Or better, call it Margin, and the other CSS-defined Margin.

Yes I think maybe 'page border width' might say it. I'll make that change in the next version (which is not going to be soon ... given the many, many things I have to do over the Christmas break).

Thanks,

Jim

[Bald Eagle]

Hello All,

I have a german HTC HD2 (version 1.48.407.1) and have installed freda via ActiveSync.
It installs into \Programme\Freda. On startup I get (roughly translated from German) 'TypeLoadExeption: This application needs a newer version of Microsoft .NET Compact Framework...'
I'm very new to the HTC and Windows Mobile (my first day) and have no idea how to check whether that in fact is true or if the localization problem from 0.9 still persists in this form.
Could someone please enlighten me, if I just should install .NET CF 3.5 or if it should be already present on my phone?

Regards
Eagle

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by Bald Eagle

Hello All,
I'm very new to the HTC and Windows Mobile (my first day) and have no idea how to check whether that in fact is true or if the localization problem from 0.9 still persists in this form.
Could someone please enlighten me, if I just should install .NET CF 3.5 or if it should be already present on my phone?

Hi,

The localisation problem is fixed (at least I hope it is - I wrote the code to fix it!). And yes, you just need to install .NET CF 3.5. .NET CF is often missing from phones - but installing it is easy, and will not cause any problem.

Good luck, and do let me know what you think of Freda.

Thanks,

Jim

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Just downloaded and tested the new version. Plays great on my HP. Good job!