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

[kartu]

Chinese user reported reboots when switching between EPUB & LRF, did anyone experience it? I suspect it was "fonts too big" but it could be anything... They say it works fine when without PRS+.


cngdxd

can "Non-Unicode text encoding " support GBK

Yes. But someone has to write and compile the translator. Ask porkupan (aka boroda) for more details.

m-land
"Virtual Keyboard" is one of the planned PRS+ modules. I was going to do it myself, then kravitz came and expressed interest in implementing it (I'd be busy porting stuff to 600/300 in the near future so I anyway won't have time for this), currently he's working on message boxes so I think it won't harm if you give it a try. It will take several iterations to get it right anyway.

Requirements (sort of)

1. VK will have exclusive access to all keys, until input is either finished (ok button) or canceled (menu button). That's not like it works in dictionary at the moment.
2. It will be horizontal, not vertical (not to waste space) Users will input keys by entering 2 numbers: row & column
3. Number of rows displayed will depend on selected keyboard layout
4. Feedback to user after only the first key was pressed - tbd, at the moment - no feedback
5. User would be able to switch between layouts by holding numeric buttons
6. Adding new alphabet based keyboard layout should be as easy as providing array of letters.
7. Users will be able to enable/disable certain keyboards via PRS+ settings
8. Shift / Caps Lock tbd (some languages don't need it at all). Probably zoom button.
9. Joypad left-right should move the caret
10. Bookmark - backspace, holding bookmark - clear input
11. Chinese and other hieroglyphic languages - tbd
12. Preferred way to render the keyboard - setting label values/drawing. If not possible/feasible images could be used.

[m-land]

Here I'm with new version of dictionary (a lot of credit to Mark Nord). New features:
-text instead of label is used (better results wrapping)
-font size could be set in settings
-dynamic zoom-out (could be set % in settings) of long results

Let give it a try, all comments are wellcome.

[mike007dog]

Originally Posted by m-land

Here I'm with new version of dictionary (a lot of credit to Mark Nord). New features:
-text instead of label is used (better results wrapping)
-font size could be set in settings
-dynamic zoom-out (could be set % in settings) of long results

Let give it a try, all comments are wellcome.

Thank you for sharing the dictionary.But can you tell me how to use the dictionary in 505. Thank you.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by mike007dog

Thank you for sharing the dictionary.But can you tell me how to use the dictionary in 505. Thank you.

This an update to be incorporated into PRS+. I'm sure someone could point you in the right direction but it isn't something that the casual user should muck with.

If you are just trying to get any dictionary working I posted how I got my dictionary working in this post.

[pampalini]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

This an update to be incorporated into PRS+. I'm sure someone could point you in the right direction but it isn't something that the casual user should muck with.

If you are just trying to get any dictionary working I posted how I got my dictionary working in this post.

That means that after a little testing, this update will be incorporated in the next issue of PRS+?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by pampalini

That means that after a little testing, this update will be incorporated in the next issue of PRS+?

That's up to Kartu but if it works like m-land says, then it sounds promising. There's even the possibility of a scientific calculator in the not so distant future.

Great work to kartu and the rest of the contributors of PRS+.

[pampalini]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

That's up to Kartu but if it works like m-land says, then it sounds promising. There's even the possibility of a scientific calculator in the not so distant future.

Great work to kartu and the rest of the contributors of PRS+.

well, that's great...and YES! the work of kartu and the rest is wonderful!!I just get the new release...and my 505 is a lot better!!

[omk3]

First of all a big thank you to Kartu and everyone else who worked on this. I only now decided to experiment with my 505. I spent several panicky hours where I thought the reader was bricked but in the end prs+ was installed and everything was fine again.

I am slowly reading my way through this huge thread to find answers to my many questions, but I need to ask a few things directly, and hope they have not been answered before.

Strange things I noticed:
-The sony software does not recognize the reader, even though it keeps on launching itself every time I plug it in. (I don't mind that it doesn't work, but I wonder if it has any effect on some other strange stuff, see next)

-Calibre could not see the contents of the reader the first time, but now it can (nothing changed that I know of).

-After installing prs+ all my tags (collections) had disappeared. I reconfigured them in calibre, but now one of the collections, even though it appears, has 0 books in it.

-The first time I browsed the folders from the reader, before updating the tags, one folder did not have its correct contents, but rather displayed a book that actually was in a different place altogether.

-Both times that I noticed, after connecting to the pc, my last page information had disappeared. (Is it a known incompatibility with the sony software or calibre or did i do something else wrong?)

No idea if it's me or prs+ that does the above things. Any comments welcome.

And a question: I read books in greek, but I have to keep their filenames and metadate in english because greek is not displayed correctly in the menus. Is there a way to change the system font to one capable of displaying greek?

and keep up the good work!

[kartu]

Regarding dictionary stuff, I'll include it into PRS+ later this week.

omk3

-The sony software does not recognize the reader, even though it keeps on launching itself every time I plug it in. (I don't mind that it doesn't work, but I wonder if it has any effect on some other strange stuff, see next)

-After installing prs+ all my tags (collections) had disappeared. I reconfigured them in calibre, but now one of the collections, even though it appears, has 0 books in it.

-The first time I browsed the folders from the reader, before updating the tags, one folder did not have its correct contents, but rather displayed a book that actually was in a different place altogether.

-Both times that I noticed, after connecting to the pc, my last page information had disappeared. (Is it a known incompatibility with the sony software or calibre or did i do something else wrong?)

-I have a comic book in epub format. The status bar shows that it has only two pages, which of course is not true. I can go beyond the second page, but it keeps saying it's the second page (100% of the book). I wonder why that happens.

PRS+ doesn't mess with low level stuff like media.xml etc (yet, anyway)
The known problem with Sony Readers (I think it got fixed in 600) was IM access was a bit buggy, when you modify existing files (that's what makes me wonder about calibre's workaround) from a PC. This problem occurs so frequently, that one can't develop stuff using internal memory.

Sounds like generic Internal Memory file system corruption. A fix would be to remove all box and reformat it, or to simply run checkdisk on it (right click, properties, tools then some button there) I think.

-I have a comic book in epub format. The status bar shows that it has only two pages, which of course is not true. I can go beyond the second page, but it keeps saying it's the second page (100% of the book). I wonder why that happens.

EPUB pages aren't the same as pages in terms of Sony Reader. Maybe that''s the source of confusion?

-Both times that I noticed, after connecting to the pc, my last page information had disappeared. (Is it a known incompatibility with the sony software or calibre or did i do something else wrong?)

Actually both should work fine with PRS+, not sure about whether they like each other though.

And a question: I read books in greek, but I have to keep their filenames and metadate in english because greek is not displayed correctly in the menus. Is there a way to change the system font to one capable of displaying greek?

Sure. Even more, if you translate texts in this file:
http://code.google.com/p/prs-plus/so...lang/Sample.js

you could even have Greek menu.

[omk3]

Wow, thank you for the quick detailed answer!

Originally Posted by kartu

omk3

PRS+ doesn't mess with low level stuff like media.xml etc (yet, anyway)
The known problem with Sony Readers (I think it got fixed in 600) was IM access was a bit buggy, when you modify existing files (that's what makes me wonder about calibre's workaround) from a PC. This problem occurs so frequently, that one can't develop stuff using internal memory.

Sounds like generic Internal Memory file system corruption. A fix would be to remove all box and reformat it, or to simply run checkdisk on it (right click, properties, tools then some button there) I think.

Checkdisk found no problems, I had already tried it. Maybe there was some confusion with all the editing via explorer and calibre at the same time. I will keep an eye on it and see if it happens again.

Originally Posted by kartu

EPUB pages aren't the same as pages in terms of Sony Reader. Maybe that''s the source of confusion?

Sorry, that was actually a problem of the specific epub. I deleted it from my post as soon as I found out it had nothing to do with prs+

Originally Posted by kartu

Sure. Even more, if you translate texts in this file:
http://code.google.com/p/prs-plus/so...lang/Sample.js

you could even have Greek menu.

I actually prefer the english menu, but if there is enough interest I would gladly translate!
So how do I go about changing just the system font?

[kartu]

omk3

Checkdisk found no problems, I had already tried it.

Do it again and reboot. Then checkdisk again. If it doesn't find errors - great.
It's not only files but their cache get's out of sync with file system, somehow.

I actually prefer the english menu, but if there is enough interest I would gladly translate!

Well, you CAN translate if you feel like doing it. I don't know how many Greek users do we have (if at all).

So how do I go about changing just the system font?

You could either wait for a couple of weeks until I'll do it (which font should I use as a source for glyphs by the way?) or prepare your own font files yourself and flash them or use them Chinese way (prsp.sh && mount --bind...)

[omk3]

See how little I know? How do I 'flash' font files, I have no idea what it means...

Ok, it won't hurt to have one more language, and translating is probably the only help I can offer. So I just translate all the green messages in the sample and send the text to you?

[kartu]

Originally Posted by omk3

See how little I know? How do I 'flash' font files, I have no idea what it means...

Well, there are number of options, but first you need to create the fonts files.

So I just translate all the green messages in the sample and send the text to you?

Yep.

[omk3]

Well, for my own use I'd probably just grab some fonts from my windows system, normal unicode fonts that just happen to include greek glyphs, but I guess it's not appropriate to post them here. I'd have to find freeware fonts for that. Gentium is one, but it's serif. I've got to also find a sans-serif and a monospace one, right?

I read that I have to modify and rename them, but I'm still a little vague as to how the actual flashing goes and if there is any conflict with prs+ (or if I can do it directly through prs+, which would be ideal*). And I don't have an SD card handy at the moment either.

*(Incidentally, as we are talking about languages, the ninth option in the language menu in prs+ is in white squares.)

[kartu]

Here is a very detailed guide on fonts and sony. It also applies to PRS+.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28447