Recently Used Files

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by Viacheslav

I have just installed the patched ctb with recent files functionality (v1.0) and made some addons:
- a new settings icon
- a Russian translation for the settings applet.

Thanks Viacheslav,

Also for the info you send me in a PM. I kind of neglected the translation, so far, I keep you in the loop for future updates. I want to use my limited time to first get the function to work. (looking at al the valuable info you send me via your PM I will be busy with the functionality for a long time ;-) After that I want to concentrate on getting correct .po files so translations for other languages can be updated.

[ponsoldt]

Why are you the only one that is fixing and improving the irex software? You seem to have done more to ad to the software then irex itself. Also, why is that you can do what they should do in half the time?

[ponsoldt]

By the way are you done with xjournal? Is it complete?

[Mackx]

Hi ponsoldt,

Why are you the only one that is fixing and improving the irex software

You are welcome to join There are more people creating improvements for the DR if you look in this forum. I think that if there would have been sold a lot more units, more 'hobby developers' would have contributed. (Maybe the DR800 will do this?(if it will ever be sold) I am mainly doing this to improve my linux programming skills and to improve my productivity on the DR.

You seem to have done more to ad to the software then irex itself?

That is not completely fair, they have invested a lot in creating an SDK that is easy to use, which is the basis for my development. Further if you count the lines that I am adding, they are only a fraction of the original code form iRex, and most of my code is copied from iRex code, and used for another purpose. I also have not done translations etc.
Then ofcourse there is the question, how much new functions are really usefull, where some more technical people would love to have a lot of extra features, others will get confused by them.

Also, why is that you can do what they should do in half the time?

That is the advantage of being a 'hobby developer'. I can put a disclaimer : 'limited tested' and 'install at your own risk', where iRex has to test all functions (and their combinations) in depth, which is time consuming (and thus expensive!).

By the way are you done with xjournal? Is it complete?

Well there still is the crash that happens when a full screen screen update (triggered by a button press) occurs at the same time as writing scribbles to the screen. Currently I am working on the recent-files/last opened document patches, so I do not have time to look at xournal. If you have remarks/want additions you can better ask them in the message thread of xournal.

[Mackx]

I extended the Recent Files patch, posted earlier, with the possibility to start with the document that was active during power-down, the next time the DR powers-up. This new functionality uses the popupmenu to determine which document is active. This means that documents that are not shown in the popupmenu (like FBReader) will also not be started automatically after power-up.
Viacheslav supplied a russian translation for the new settings-dialog.

The attached zip file should be unzipped on your SD-card. It will add 2 short-cuts in Home->Documents->Programs->Install:
Apply Recent Files Patch v1.2 and
Restore Recent Files Patch v1.2.
One to install and one to un-install the patch. The install and uninstall will do a reset of the DR1000, so do not worry when this happens.

Before you try:
THIS ONLY WORKS FOR THE DR1000! (do not try to use this for the DR800!!!)
THIS PATCH MODIFIES THE FIRMWARE (replaces 'ctb', 'popupmenu' and 'settings') SO APPLY AT YOUR OWN RISK. ONLY USE FOR VERSION 1.7/1.7.1 OF THE FIRMWARE.

The posted version is used by 6 people, they have not found disturbing problems, but still you should be aware that you are modifying your firmware. Also note that the patches are applied the original versions of the R1.7/R1.7.1 firmware so DO NOT USE when you have another firmware installed!!! (Nor for the DR800.) If something went really wrong, I have no reason to believe that you would not be able to fix it with a firmware re-install.

Use:
- After the restart, you should go to the settings dialog
- You will see a new icon called "Recent Files" clicking on it gives a new dialog that:
Recent Files Options:
+ allows you the enable the feature to create short-cuts in the folder called Documents->Recent)
+ allows you to enable the feature to show the Recent folder after startup
Startup Options:
+ allows you to start the active document during power-off, at the next power-up.
- re-opening all document is not implemented yet.
Card Removal Options:
- not implemented

I modified Settings->About to show the version of the Recent Files patch: V1.2.1.

Known Problems/Limitations:
- The Recent-Files folder only grows, old files will not be removed automatically.
- Only files that are opened from the 'folder view' are added. So if you open a new document in FBReader or xournal, these are NOT added in the Recent-Files folder.
- As said before, only files that show up in the popupmenu can be restarted after a power-up!. So all the native formats (pdf, txt, etc) and xournal documents can be restarted. But FBReader, midori, evince documents will NOT be restarted.
- Note that 'active documents' means that the document should still be opened and visbile when you shutdown the DR using the menu.

Please let me know what you think of it (bugs, improvements, other questions, ...)

[rfog]

I'm going to test it immediatly...

One idea I was messing how to implement: a clock in the status bar that change when changing page... Or a clock in the menu...

BTW... Do we have CTB source code? PDF viewer?

Will be difficult to integrate Coolreader or any other FB2 viewer?

[rfog]

Works perfect here.

If you give me the english locale file I will translate to Spainsh...

[Mackx]

Hi rfog,

You are looking for projects now that you got your development environment up and running

Originally Posted by rfog

One idea I was messing how to implement: a clock in the status bar that change when changing page... Or a clock in the menu...

Someone else asked for a clock before, see this message for a clock program. I made a very simple modifications of the helloworld program. Its more a gimmick then a serious program.

Originally Posted by rfog

BTW... Do we have CTB source code? PDF viewer?

Will be difficult to integrate Coolreader or any other FB2 viewer?

That are a lot of questions. iRex has published (almost) all code at their site in the Sources folder. The CTB or ContentBrowser is the program that is responsible for showing the SD content (folder view) and for starting viewers to display the documents. The complete code of the CTB is published by iRex. Like in MS windows, files can be associated with programs using their extension. This is normally done via the gconf-mechanism (some kind of linux variant of the windows registry if I understand it correctly), but a copy of the associations are also stored in the dr1000.ini file (see the System-folder on your SD-card).
When you look in your dr1000.ini file, you will see that most extensions are associated with a programs called uds (I think it is for Universal Document system, or something like it). This is a generic viewer with plug-ins for the different formats. The plug-ins are published (document-viewer-plugins), but the generic part not. This generic part handles, among others, annotations, pagebar, (uniform) key-handling, etc.
So, to come back to your questions, the pdf viewer is, kind-of, published. The current pdf plug-in for the DR1000 uses the poppler library to scale and render pdf pages to bitmaps. It should also be possible to add extra plug-ins for other formats, but I have not looked into how this should be done.
However, since it is just linux, with gtk, running on your DR, other viewer programs can also be ported to the DR, like already done with FBReader, xournal, midori, evince, etc. This could also be done for the programs you mention I guess. How difficult this will be, depends on the programs themselves, are they gtk based and written in C, then it will not be difficult for an experienced linux programmer. Otherwise expect to spend a lot of your 'spare-hours' on it.

[Mackx]

Hi rfog,

Originally Posted by rfog

If you give me the english locale file I will translate to Spainsh...

See attachment for es.po file, 1 fuzzy translation, and 13 untranslated messages to do.

[rfog]

Done the translation!

Sent to you!

[rfog]

Originally Posted by Mackx

Hi rfog,

You are looking for projects now that you got your development environment up and running


Someone else asked for a clock before, see this message for a clock program. I made a very simple modifications of the helloworld program. Its more a gimmick then a serious program.

I can see. From now it seems enough, but it would be great to have into toolbar...

Originally Posted by Mackx

That are a lot of questions. iRex has published (almost) all code at their site in the Sources folder. The CTB or ContentBrowser is the program that is responsible for showing the SD content (folder view) and for starting viewers to display the documents. The complete code of the CTB is published by iRex. Like in MS windows, files can be associated with programs using their extension. This is normally done via the gconf-mechanism (some kind of linux variant of the windows registry if I understand it correctly), but a copy of the associations are also stored in the dr1000.ini file (see the System-folder on your SD-card).

Well, I'm a silly man. I've only seen 1.7.1 folder. In 1.7 you have a lot of source code...

Originally Posted by Mackx

When you look in your dr1000.ini file, you will see that most extensions are associated with a programs called uds (I think it is for Universal Document system, or something like it). This is a generic viewer with plug-ins for the different formats. The plug-ins are published (document-viewer-plugins), but the generic part not. This generic part handles, among others, annotations, pagebar, (uniform) key-handling, etc.
So, to come back to your questions, the pdf viewer is, kind-of, published. The current pdf plug-in for the DR1000 uses the poppler library to scale and render pdf pages to bitmaps. It should also be possible to add extra plug-ins for other formats, but I have not looked into how this should be done.
However, since it is just linux, with gtk, running on your DR, other viewer programs can also be ported to the DR, like already done with FBReader, xournal, midori, evince, etc. This could also be done for the programs you mention I guess. How difficult this will be, depends on the programs themselves, are they gtk based and written in C, then it will not be difficult for an experienced linux programmer. Otherwise expect to spend a lot of your 'spare-hours' on it.

I know... Buf, for example, porting FBReader does not integrate it, it only allows to run separately... And Sudoky sample shows very big to be comfortably used...

[Mackx]

rfog was so nice to do the Spanish translation. Unpack the attached zip file to you SD card and go to Programs/Install and click on the new icon to 'Add Spanish to Recent Files Patch'. The translation should be used after changing the language from and back to Spanish or resetting the device if all is well.

PS: @rfog: Sorry for uploading so late.

[adi]

Originally Posted by Mackx

I extended the Recent Files patch, posted earlier, with the possibility to start with the document that was active during power-down, the next time the DR powers-up. This new functionality uses the popupmenu to determine which document is active.

Thank you. This appears to be working perfectly.

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by ThR

Is it possible to autostart FBReader when starting up the DR1000? FBReader opens the last read document within itself, when it starts. So it would be a full solution: DR starts FBReader, FBReader starts the last document, ready to read. ;-)

The question was posted in another thread, but I think it is more on-topic here.
Another solution is to change the port of FBReader so that it is visible in the taskbar of the popupmenu :-)
The current alternative is to start the last document manually, when you have enabled the option to show the 'Recent Files' folder at start-up, this would not take that much time.

I just told my 'guinea pigs' that I wanted to put further development of the patch on-hold until the new firmware for the DR1000 is available and see what is still needed. The main reasons to add the auto-start is because start-up takes such a long time and it is very hard to go quickly to the last read document. The firmware for the DR800 seems to have a solution for both. You can expect one addition within one or two weeks, that (optionally) also creates a short-cut to the folder of all opened documents in the Recent-folder.

[Mackx]

I extended the Recent Files patch, posted earlier, with the possibility to also store the folder in which the opened document is. Viacheslav provided the idea, and according the people that have used it until now, it is a usefull addition.
Viacheslav supplied a russian translation and rfog the Spanish for the new settings-dialog.

The attached zip file should be unzipped on your SD-card. It will add 2 short-cuts in Home->Documents->Programs->Install:
Apply Recent Files Patch v1.3 and
Restore Recent Files Patch v1.3.
One to install and one to un-install the patch. The install and uninstall will do a reset of the DR1000, so do not worry when this happens.

Before you try:
THIS ONLY WORKS FOR THE DR1000! (do not try to use this for the DR800!!!)
THIS PATCH MODIFIES THE FIRMWARE (replaces 'ctb', 'popupmenu' and 'settings') SO APPLY AT YOUR OWN RISK. ONLY USE FOR VERSION 1.7/1.7.1 OF THE FIRMWARE.

The posted version is used by 6 people, they have not found disturbing problems, but still you should be aware that you are modifying your firmware. Also note that the patches are applied the original versions of the R1.7/R1.7.1 firmware so DO NOT USE when you have another firmware installed!!! (Nor for the DR800.) If something went really wrong, I have no reason to believe that you would not be able to fix it with a firmware re-install.

New Setting item:
The settings for the Recent Files has a new item: "Remember their parents folder" enabling this will also store a short-cut to the folders in the Recent Files folder.

Known Problems/Limitations:
- The Recent-Files folder only grows, old files will not be removed automatically.
- Only files that are opened from the 'folder view' are added. So if you open a new document in FBReader or xournal, these are NOT added in the Recent-Files folder.
- As said before, only files that show up in the popupmenu can be restarted after a power-up!. So all the native formats (pdf, txt, etc) and xournal documents can be restarted. But FBReader, midori, evince documents will NOT be restarted.
- Note that 'active documents' means that the document should still be opened and visbile when you shutdown the DR using the menu.

Please let me know what you think of it (bugs, improvements, other questions, ...)