PRS+: Enhanced firmware for Sony Reader, Folders, Games & more

[Belfaborac]

Would it be possible, perhaps, to make an alternative version of PRS+ for the 950 without the games? Personally I am unlikely to ever fire up a game on mine and I would far rather have some additional useful functions instead.

No big deal though, as I'm very happy with PRS+ as-is, but if space is at a premium and you guys have more useful stuff you'd like to add, then I would think a lot of users would happily forego the games.

[Analogus]

Quisvir:

I try to implement large home icon for the Action-Launcher but cannot find out the name. Tried several options like:

ACTIONLAUNCHER
HOME_ACTION_LAUNCHER
ACTION_LAUNCHER
HOME_ACTIONLAUNCHER
HOME_TITLE

Could you be so kind helping me with one word ;-) ?

A

[quisvir]

The icon is set to 'FOLDER' in StandardActions_x50, line 299 in current revision. The name there determines what will be looked for in the config file. If you make a new one, say 'LAUNCHER', you can add LAUNCHER and optionally HOME_LAUNCHER to the config file, with a suitable index (number) to point it to a place in the png.

[Analogus]

Thank you. Working!

A

[BenChen]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

Would it be possible, perhaps, to make an alternative version of PRS+ for the 950 without the games? Personally I am unlikely to ever fire up a game on mine and I would far rather have some additional useful functions instead.

No big deal though, as I'm very happy with PRS+ as-is, but if space is at a premium and you guys have more useful stuff you'd like to add, then I would think a lot of users would happily forego the games.

Hi Belfaborac,

The problem isn't with disk space. The games don't take up much room on the reader, and only get loaded into memory when you start them. But that's when the problem occurs, especially on the 950. It seems that the games are not fully unloaded from memory and so the reader eventually runs out of memory and crashes. The problem is worst on the 950 since the 950 requires more memory to run normally (all the wifi and web-browsing functions!) let alone once all the base PRS+ stuff is loaded. Unfortunately, there is basically no room left over in the memory for playing games...

To cut a long story short, there is no problem including the games in PRS+ as long as 950 users know they shouldn't try and run them! The games and apps are quite usable on the other models, you see. (However, if I start four different games in a row, my 650 will crash too. I just know that I should always keep to a subset of the games and I will be fine.)

Sincerely,
Ben.

[oldhasbeen]

I am assuming you have a 950? (The calendar works fine on my 650, you see.) If so, then there isn't much we can do although it is still on the "to do" list. The standard firmware on the 950 has a lot more code than the 650 (all the web browsing/wifi stuff) which means there isn't as much room for PRS+.


Hi Ben,
yes I am using 950. I do not touch any game. The calendar hangs immediately after launching and no touch or button will respond then. Only rebooting helps. All wireless is disabled (I have in fact superglued the switch to the off position - useless feature here in Australia.)

[Analogus]

@Belfaborac:

If you want to risk a custom build, on the link below you will find a version for the 950 without games.
But be warned: this is no official release and not tested by me (bcause I only can test 350-custom-builds).

A.

[Analogus]

Question to the developers:

Is there any chance to alter the font-size of the dictionary?


There is a line in main.xml around 3100:

<variable id="VAR_DIC_TEXT_SIZE" value="10"/>

Altering the value seems to cause no impact.

Any ideas?

Thanks

A.

[Belfaborac]

Originally Posted by BenChen

Hi Belfaborac,

The problem isn't with disk space. The games don't take up much room on the reader, and only get loaded into memory when you start them. But that's when the problem occurs, especially on the 950. It seems that the games are not fully unloaded from memory and so the reader eventually runs out of memory and crashes. The problem is worst on the 950 since the 950 requires more memory to run normally (all the wifi and web-browsing functions!) let alone once all the base PRS+ stuff is loaded. Unfortunately, there is basically no room left over in the memory for playing games...

Thanks for clearing that up! Basically then, the 950 simply have too little memory. No big deal for me thankfully, since, like I said, I'm unlikely to ever fire up either of the games.

I've said this before here, but it can't hurt repeating it: thanks a lot for PRS+, it has significantly increased my enjoyment of both the 505 and now the 950. It really is an excellent piece of programming which I wouldn't be without.

[Belfaborac]

Originally Posted by Analogus

@Belfaborac:

If you want to risk a custom build, on the link below you will find a version for the 950 without games.
But be warned: this is no official release and not tested by me (bcause I only can test 350-custom-builds).

A.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate you taking the time to do that!

As far as risk is concerned and the absence of testing - are there any particular differences between the regular 950 and 350 versions which might make it crash and burn?

[ilovejedd]

Just installed Analogus' build for the PRS-350. What exactly does "Use subcollections" do?

[BenChen]

Originally Posted by oldhasbeen

yes I am using 950. I do not touch any game. The calendar hangs immediately after launching and no touch or button will respond then. Only rebooting helps. All wireless is disabled (I have in fact superglued the switch to the off position - useless feature here in Australia.)

The Calendar and Calculator (and CLI utility) are programmed the same way as the games, so these apps are affected by the memory issue, too.

Sincerely,
Ben.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by BenChen

The Calendar and Calculator (and CLI utility) are programmed the same way as the games, so these apps are affected by the memory issue, too.

@oldhasbeen - In other words what you are experiencing is normal behavior for this app on the 950.

[ThR]

Annotation relating to games on PRS-950: I'm doing two things on my 950: reading books and playing sudoku, 4 or 5 times every day (3-4 hours in summery). Nothing else. Sometimes WLAN and Internet. But only rarely. I've never encountered a crash of my device. The last reboot was with the 2.0.18 update, prior to this I think around Xmas. Charging every 2 or 3 weeks, depending on daily usage.
So I have no problems with the game. ;-)

[oldhasbeen]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

@oldhasbeen - In other words what you are experiencing is normal behavior for this app on the 950.

Hi dwanthny and Ben,
what puzzles me is that the calculator works flawless.
what the calendar does:
in more window touch calendar icon > calendar app disappears (the other apps collections etc remain but are unresponsive)
touch return arrow next to More > screen changes and only "undefined" is displayed next to the return arrow on top.
no further response to whatever input (the return arrow reverses color on touch and the circle with - at the bottom bar is displayed - same when pressing any button.
Turning of asks for the standard confirmation and after touching "yes"the last read book cover appears (standby/shutdown selection) briefly but changes back to the previous "undefined" status.
Reader is dead now and does not respond to the power slider.
Resetting button and power slider to on will reboot normal.
Reformatting internal memory and reloading prs+ makes no difference.