MobileRead newsletter - your input is needed!

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by jæd

And, in the rss feed, there's a link from the article to the discussion of that article...

... which isn't helpful for disconnected devices, is it?

Well, I am open to all suggestions - and if the majority believes we don't need a newsletter, by all means, I am not trying to force it upon you

[TadW]

RSS provides only what... the last 10 threads?

[Alexander Turcic]

OK, attached you find a first demo of how the newsletter could look like. One is optimized for the Sony Reader, the other for the iRex iLiad. Bear in mind that I don't have an iLiad to try it out myself.

The following formats were used:

• Font: Times (serif), non-embedded
• Font-size: 12 (body), 10 (header)
• Margins: 1.0mm to 2.0mm
• Page dimensions: 3.57x4.82in (Sony Reader), 124x152mm (iRex iLiad)

This is your chance to influence how our future newsletter will look like So comments are greatly appreciately. Please separate your comments on the content and the layout.

[jæd]

From a quick flip through of the Iliad version...

* Paragraphing seems to have been lost on some stories
* Why use ^^ to denote links...? Just link the entire headline (this is what it used for the toc, why change the metaphor)?
* Some links are too wide for the page

Looks cool and compact, though...!

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by jæd

Paragraphing seems to have been lost on some stories

Can you elaborate? If you mean some specific formatting, like quotes, then yes, that is "by design" (to keep the file small and content non-redundant).

* Why use ^^ to denote links...? Just link the entire headline (this is what it used for the toc, why change the metaphor)?

Haven't thought about it - I think you're right

Some links are too wide for the page

Yeah, nothing really that can be done here as htmldoc doesn't line-break long links. So they will overflow.

Looks cool and compact, though...!

Glad that you like it More content will follow. Like, latest from the Wiki, latest polls, stats, you name it.

[TadW]

Content: Cool! What exactly is included in the sample files? Only new threads of a week (including posts), or also updated threads that go back more than one week?

Layout: Looks fine on the Reader. Suggestion... how about inserting a page break after the end of each thread? This way every thread will start on top of a new page.

[jæd]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Yeah, nothing really that can be done here as htmldoc doesn't line-break long links. So they will overflow.

Perhaps time to drop using htmldoc and use Latex as a constuction method...?

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by jæd

Perhaps time to drop using htmldoc and use Latex as a constuction method...?

I'd love to - but I need help. I have never done Latex

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

I'd love to - but I need help. I have never done Latex

That's what we use on Feedbooks, I guess we could help you or host it, if you're doing LaTeX.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

That's what we use on Feedbooks, I guess we could help you or host it, if you're doing LaTeX.

Hosting is not a problem. It's the markup - I've never bothered to look at LaTeX closer. Would it be a lot of pain to do it, and would it be worth it rather than using something restrictive like htmldoc?

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Hosting is not a problem. It's the markup - I've never bothered to look at LaTeX closer. Would it be a lot of pain to do it, and would it be worth it rather than using something restrictive like htmldoc?

Using LaTeX is really easy, it shouldn't be much of a problem. You could do a php file that would output the .tex file and then use pdflatex to transform it into a PDF.
So no, it shouldn't be a lot of pain in your case (mostly because you're dealing with a single output, the newsletter will always look the same), and it is much more powerfull than htmldoc.

[Alexander Turcic]

Now I am intrigued Hadrien, do you have some concrete hints how I should start with LaTeX->PDF? Like, what tools should I download, how should I start preparing the .tex file?

I really appreciate your help!

[Hadrien]

Well, any LaTeX distribution should do the trick for you... You just need a bunch of basic packages and the pdflatex binary.
As for the beginning of your .tex file (Sony Reader here):
\documentclass[english,oneside]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel} \usepackage[colorlinks=true,linkcolor=black,bookmarks=true,boo kmarksnumbered=true,hypertexnames=false,plainpages =false,pdfpagelabels]{hyperref}
\geometry{paperwidth=90mm,paperheight=120mm}
\geometry{left=1mm, right=1mm, bottom=1mm, top=1mm}
\begin{document}
...
\end{document}

[Alexander Turcic]

Thanks for the pointer, Hadrien. I read a LaTeX primer last night in bed, and I am impressed about the quality.

While I think I will continue reading about LaTeX, I am not so sure if it's my best choice for the newsletter. The information I pull from our databases has markup (bbcode); I would have to write a bcode->latex conversion script first in order to use LaTeX. Will see if it justifies the work, that is, if you guys don't like how the current newsletter looks like.

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Thanks for the pointer, Hadrien. I read a LaTeX primer last night in bed, and I am impressed about the quality.

While I think I will continue reading about LaTeX, I am not so sure if it's my best choice for the newsletter. The information I pull from our databases has markup (bbcode); I would have to write a bcode->latex conversion script first in order to use LaTeX. Will see if it justifies the work, that is, if you guys don't like how the current newsletter looks like.

That's part of what i've been doing lately. We're adding features to Feedbooks using bbcode like markups, this way people can add quotes, verses, bold, italic, horizontal rule etc...