KPV: a PDF reader for Kindle, based on muPDF, GPLv3

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by dave2008

That sounds like a broken glass substrate on the physical eink display, and not a "froze up" problem. I recently broke a screen like this on one of my k3g kindles.

Though I am not going to do that, I am curious about how to reproduce it ;P

My kindle was in a protective leather case, with USB cable attached, when I accidentally pulled it off my desk. It bounced off my foot and I caught it so it did not hit anything hard. I noticed later a small crack growing in the lower right corner of the bezel, followed later by a growing crack in the glass (with slowly spreading damage), starting at the gap between the right "Next Page" and "Prev Page" buttons on the side. Not happy about that.

[dave2008]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

My kindle was in a protective leather case, with USB cable attached, when I accidentally pulled it off my desk. It bounced off my foot and I caught it so it did not hit anything hard. I noticed later a small crack growing in the lower right corner of the bezel, followed later by a growing crack in the glass (with slowly spreading damage), starting at the gap between the right "Next Page" and "Prev Page" buttons on the side. Not happy about that.

Oh.... I also have a small crack in the lower right corner of the bezel. And seems like it is growing slowly too.

I guess I will become another user of your scroll program in the future ;P

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by dave2008

Oh.... I also have a small crack in the lower right corner of the bezel. And seems like it is growing slowly too.

I guess I will become another user of your scroll program in the future ;P

I just noticed that my GOOD K3 has a small crack in the lower right and a LARGE CRACK in the lower left corners of the bezel. I know that one was never dropped (and it still works, at least for now)...

[hawhill]

Oh dear, too much stories about cracks in K3 in general for my taste... (some voice in my head is yelling "UV light sensitivity", but that's just that insolent voice that's always jumping to conclusions a bit too fast)

I destroyed a KDX by a terrible mistake not long after I bought it. Let's just say it ended up being somewhat round on the top quarter, something the glass armoring of the substrate wasn't able to cope with. However, to my great disbelief the device powered on and even drove some minor bit of the display quite well. Aside from the eink screen, it worked pretty well. I was honest with Amazon and their generosity on the matter will probably pay off well since I caught myself more than once making the case for them.

But I think the thread is long enough already as to not discuss the broken-screen traumas here :-) As for the problem reported, the easy test would be to power-cycle the device (i.e. hold power botton for 20s and power on again). There most probably are corner cases left where either us or Amzon or both messed up with the software :-P

@NuPogodi: Yes, maybe a naming change should take place at some point. Fun fact: There's alreasy a general document reader abstraction in place in the current version that's named "UniReader". So - I think that name would be appealing. However, that dreadful self-PR my hometown is running (though understandable, the university is its one and only asset) shall not profit from this if I can help it :-P

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by hawhill

Oh dear, too much stories about cracks in K3 in general for my taste... (some voice in my head is yelling "UV light sensitivity", but that's just that insolent voice that's always jumping to conclusions a bit too fast)

All 9 of my kindles are in protected covers that also block out UV light, so that "voice in your head" can safely be ignored in this case.

Originally Posted by hawhill

But I think the thread is long enough already as to not discuss the broken-screen traumas here :-)

Oops. Already posted before I read this part. Sorry... Do you recommend that we move this discussion to a new "screen trauma" thread?

[dave2008]

Originally Posted by medwatt

Thanks all for the chm support. The CHM support has been working with some books but its crashing with this. The document is attached.

I just found that the latest code from upstream has fixed this issue. So you will be able to read this chm with next release

[NuPogodi]

1. Just a minor fix to make sure that ".." is always the first item in the list.
filechooser.lua (line 48), changes are bold

function FileChooser:readDir()
self.dirs = {}
self.files = {}
for f in lfs.dir(self.path) do
if lfs.attributes(self.path.."/"..f, "mode") == "directory" and f ~= "." and f~=".." and not string.match(f, "^%.[^.]") then
--debug(self.path.." -> adding: '"..f.."'")
table.insert(self.dirs, f)
else
local file_type = string.lower(string.match(f, ".+%.([^.]+)") or "")
if file_type == "djvu"
or file_type == "pdf" or file_type == "xps" or file_type == "cbz"
or file_type == "epub" or file_type == "txt" or file_type == "rtf"
or file_type == "htm" or file_type == "html" or file_type == "mobi"
or file_type == "fb2" or file_type == "chm" or file_type == "doc"
or file_type == "zip" then
table.insert(self.files, f)
end
end
end
--@TODO make sure .. is sortted to the first item 16.02 2012 -- fixed
table.sort(self.dirs)
if self.path~="/" then table.insert(self.dirs,1,"..") end
table.sort(self.files)
end

2. Just an idea... ATM, the file docfile.kpdfview.lua with the local preferences ("gamma_index", "jump_histoty", etc) is saved in the same folder where the docfile is stored. In other words, kindlepdfreader leaves a garbage that (if the folder structure is complex) might later be a bit difficult to find (afaik, kpdf remembers tle last docfile only) and remove manually. I've changed a bit settings.lua to store all setting-files to the fixed folder ./history/ (settings.lua, line 2, changes are bold)

function fn(fullname)
local i,j = 1,0
while i ~= nil do
i = string.find(fullname,"/",i+1)
if i==nil then break end
j = i
end
local f = string.sub(fullname,j,-1)
if j>0 then
return f.." \["..string.gsub(string.sub(fullname,1,j),"/","#").."\]"
else
return f
end
end

function DocSettingspen(docfile)
lfs.mkdir("./history") -- to make sure it exists
local new = { file = "./history/"..fn(docfile)..".lua", data = {} }
local ok, stored = pcall(dofile,new.file)
if ok then
new.data = stored
end
return setmetatable(new, { __index = DocSettings})
end

Apart from avoiding a garbage, I want in future to use these lua-files in making a list of recently opened docs. An evident drawback was that several files may have the same filename, but stored in various folders.
PS Fixed! In the current version the files are saved to ./history/-folder as docfile [ path where "/"s are replaced by "#" ].lua
Example: Bolaño, R. – Amberes.fb2.zip [#mnt#us#books#Tests#].lua
Thanks, knc1!

[NuPogodi]

I've just recognized that some local settings (for example, fontsize) are not saved and restored when crengine is initialized. To save this parameter one needs to add in crereader.lua
1. line 12

font_zoom = 0,

2. line 55 (in function CREReader:loadSpecialSettings())

font_zoom = self.settings:readSetting("font_zoom") or 0
if font_zoom~=0 then
local i,step=0,1
if font_zoom<0 then step=-1 end
for i=0,font_zoom,step do self.doc:zoomFont(step) end
end

3. line 76 (in function CREReader:saveSpecialSettings())

self.settings:saveSetting("font_zoom", font_zoom)

4. and finally, line 314 (add only bolfaced line)

self.commands:addGroup(MOD_SHIFT.."< >",{
Keydef:new(KEY_PGBCK,MOD_SHIFT),Keydef:new(KEY_PGF WD,MOD_SHIFT),
Keydef:new(KEY_LPGBCK,MOD_SHIFT),Keydef:new(KEY_LP GFWD,MOD_SHIFT)},
"increase/decrease font size",
function(self)
local delta = 1
local change = "increase"
if keydef.keycode == KEY_PGBCK or keydef.keycode == KEY_LPGBCK then
delta = -1
change = "decrease"
end
InfoMessage:show(change.." font size", 0)
font_zoom = font_zoom + delta -- store last delta for zoom
self.doc:zoomFont(delta)
self:redrawCurrentPage()
end
)

[knc1]

Originally Posted by NuPogodi

Apart from avoiding a garbage, I want in future to use these lua-files in making a list of recently opened docs. An evident drawback is that several files may have the same filename, but stored in various folders.

One way to deal with that is to split the filename off from the pathname and then reverse their order, as in:
/somewhere1/filename
/somewhere2/filename

into (for a sorted index listing purposes):
filename:/somewhere1
filename:/somewhere2
Using whatever text decoration (':') you feel makes sense to visually split the fields.

[valex]

Originally Posted by dpavlin

We forgot to add .mobi extension as supported format, but it will be in next version: https://github.com/hwhw/kindlepdfvie...7eaa2faea47803

.prc is another extension for mobi. I added it to the three files and it works.

I also found that none of my dictionaries in mobi format work ("Error: Unknown document format"). There is no DRM in those files, Kindle software opens them without any problems.

[medwatt]

Ok guys I have shattered my kindle to atoms in blind frustration and I want to buy a new e-reader. Should I go this time for a sony or still maintain the kindle trend because based on what I've been reading so far, the Kindle seems to have a very short life expectancy and should be held like an egg. Are SONY products more resilient because I'm a little hasty ?

[dpavlin]

Originally Posted by valex

.prc is another extension for mobi. I added it to the three files and it works.

Thanks for reporting this. I committed similar fix: https://github.com/hwhw/kindlepdfvie...7791e0bd39379f

Originally Posted by valex

I also found that none of my dictionaries in mobi format work ("Error: Unknown document format"). There is no DRM in those files, Kindle software opens them without any problems.

I don't know about crengine to have a clue why. Can you provide sample of such file?

[dpavlin]

Originally Posted by medwatt

Ok guys I have shattered my kindle to atoms in blind frustration and I want to buy a new e-reader. Should I go this time for a sony or still maintain the kindle trend because based on what I've been reading so far, the Kindle seems to have a very short life expectancy and should be held like an egg. Are SONY products more resilient because I'm a little hasty ?

Can we please stick on topic in this thread? It's about reader software for kindle not about device selection, and it doesn't mater that this software might change your mind :-)

[NuPogodi]

Does anybody like the filechooser to look in that way?

[dave2008]

Originally Posted by NuPogodi

Does anybody like the filechooser to look in that way?

Looks good