PRS-500 Direct Page Control Hack

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by ns66

positive, holding next for 5 sec get you to the end of all 50 pages, not going next 10 pages. so basically you can flip from beginning or from end of book list, that's it

Hmmm.. that's indeed not very helpful.

[Nogg]

I've succeeded in bricking my reader trying to get it to overwrite current settings with a new xml file in the scripts directory. That's good news in that it means it was loading the xml file, but bad news in that what I tried didn't work. I'll have to try some more later this week.

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by Nogg

I've succeeded in bricking my reader trying to get it to overwrite current settings with a new xml file in the scripts directory. That's good news in that it means it was loading the xml file, but bad news in that what I tried didn't work. I'll have to try some more later this week.

The Reader bricks with one little typo. Also unknown functions will brick it. I think in the process of making the different hack I bricked it at least 100 time already.

The clock writes its settings to a file. You can use that as an example how to use file access.

[Nogg]

Yeah, typical of most embedded code.

I noticed the stream access for the clock. That's not exactly what I'm looking for. I was hoping I could supersede some of the applicationStart button mappings in a file in "scripts". It appears as if the reader automatically loads any file in that dir, but my initial attempts haven't gotten me the functionality I'm looking for.

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by Nogg

Yeah, typical of most embedded code.

I noticed the stream access for the clock. That's not exactly what I'm looking for. I was hoping I could supersede some of the applicationStart button mappings in a file in "scripts". It appears as if the reader automatically loads any file in that dir, but my initial attempts haven't gotten me the functionality I'm looking for.

Let me know how you go otherwise I will see if I can do something with VB.

[ns66]

Originally Posted by ns66

to help with finding book due to ereader flat file structure, some possibilities

1. make number button N-> N% of book list pages, just like within a book, instead of picking on a particular book (because we usually won't have that many pages for book list, this option should suffice)

to do this, seems add the method

<function id="doDigit" params="part">
...
</function>

in group id="MENU_GROUP"? don't know what method calls jump to n% pages

[b0lt]

There's a minor problem with the clock. Times from 00:00 to 00:59 are shown as PM when using 12 hour mode. This is because the hour is set to 12 before the am/pm check is done. Line 835 should be after the if block immediately after, i.e.

if (hours > 11) {
	m = "pm";
	if (hours > 12) hours -= 12
}
if (hours == 0) hours = 12;

instead of

if (hours == 0) hours = 12;
if (hours > 11) {
	m = "pm";
	if (hours > 12) hours -= 12
}

[mosteo]

I would like to suggest another possibility for navigation that differs from the current Direct Page Control in that it only needs two buttons (or three, counting a reset). I think this idea would be specially good for navigating dictionaries or sorted lists (like the TOC!).

The idea is based in the divide and conquer search: basically, right takes you to the middle of the right half of data, left to the middle of the left half of data. This way you can very quickly (in logarithmic time) get near the part you're interested in. I don't know, however, if this can be programmed in the reader (since it requires memory from the search start).

So let's say you're in page 1 and want to locate page 700 of a 1000 page book. The sequence would be:

Right: reaches page 500 ((1000 + 1) / 2)
Right: reaches page 750 ((500 + 1000) / 2)
Left: reaches page 625 ((500 + 750) / 2)
Right: reaches page 687 ((625 + 750) / 2)
Right: reaches page 718 ((687 + 750) / 2)
Left: reaches page 702 ((687 + 718) / 2)

And for dictionaries, it is just left when you overturn, right when you turn short.

What do you think? Doable? It basically saves you the work of mentally trying to guess the page you want to jump to, at the cost of maybe requiring more jumps if you are good at guessing. The reset would simply say "consider the whole text again".

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by mosteo

I would like to suggest another possibility for navigation that differs from the current Direct Page Control in that it only needs two buttons (or three, counting a reset). I think this idea would be specially good for navigating dictionaries or sorted lists (like the TOC!).

The idea is based in the divide and conquer search: basically, right takes you to the middle of the right half of data, left to the middle of the left half of data. This way you can very quickly (in logarithmic time) get near the part you're interested in. I don't know, however, if this can be programmed in the reader (since it requires memory from the search start).

So let's say you're in page 1 and want to locate page 700 of a 1000 page book. The sequence would be:

Right: reaches page 500 ((1000 + 1) / 2)
Right: reaches page 750 ((500 + 1000) / 2)
Left: reaches page 625 ((500 + 750) / 2)
Right: reaches page 687 ((625 + 750) / 2)
Right: reaches page 718 ((687 + 750) / 2)
Left: reaches page 702 ((687 + 718) / 2)

And for dictionaries, it is just left when you overturn, right when you turn short.

What do you think? Doable? It basically saves you the work of mentally trying to guess the page you want to jump to, at the cost of maybe requiring more jumps if you are good at guessing. The reset would simply say "consider the whole text again".

Doable?

I will take a look at it when I'm back over a week. First it's time to enjoy my holiday in Spain.

[mosteo]

Originally Posted by diabloNL

Doable?

I will take a look at it when I'm back over a week. First it's time to enjoy my holiday in Spain.

Ey! I'm from Spain . Which regions are you to visit?

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by mosteo

Ey! I'm from Spain . Which regions are you to visit?

I'm going to Montgó Javea. Me and my girlfriend rented a villa with our own private swimming pool. So I will be lying in the swimming pool all week.

[mosteo]

Originally Posted by diabloNL

I'm going to Montgó Javea. Me and my girlfriend rented a villa with our own private swimming pool. So I will be lying in the swimming pool all week.

Wow, sounds good. Don't let your reader to get wet...

[diabloNL]

I won't be taking it with me on the air bed in the pool. Es no buena idea!

[NatCh]

Ziploks, my friend, Ziploks!

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Ziploks, my friend, Ziploks!

Good tip NatCh, thanks!