Retaining position when switching between portrait and landscape

[ShellShock]

When the reading position is in the middle of a chapter and switching between landscape and portrait (by rotating your iThing), Marvin 3 does not retain the current reading position. Landscape seems to be several screens behind portrait. It may be that landscape is exactly one page behind portrait, and this means it is several screens behind (where one page = several screens).

I don't remember this being a problem with Marvin 2.

This behaviour was mentioned before in this forum (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...43&postcount=4) but was buried in another thread, so I thought I would raise it again in a new thread, to hopefully get some feedback from other Marvin users and Kris.

[odamizu]

I've posted about this a few times and also emailed Kris. Every time there's an update, I check to see if it's fixed, and .... nope.

Not sure if this means Kris can't figure it out or doesn't consider it to be an issue.

[ShellShock]

Yes I keep hoping it will get fixed with each release, as it seems such an obvious bug to me. I hope this thread will raise its prominence so Kris will please investigate and fix it.

In switching between portrait and landscape, Marvin seems to be reflowing the text from the beginning of the section/chapter, and this is when the current reading position is lost. It is not always idempotent when you cycle landscape to portrait to landscape. For example:

• Start in landscape: "6 pages left in This section".
• Rotate to portrait: "Last page in This section".
• Rotate to landscape: "10 pages left in This section".

It now settles down between last page (portrait) and 10 pages left (landscape). We can see that the difference in location is not minor: as much as 10 pages in this example, which can make finding your last reading position quite tricky.

I sometimes read in portrait and sometimes in landscape, so it would be really great to have this fixed. Even for people who only read in one mode, this bug could catch them out if they accidentally rotate their iThing when Marvin is open.

[Turtle91]

Yes, Kris is aware of this issue. It was found during Beta testing and discussed a bit. Part of the problem is that there is no way to determine where on the current screen your eyeballs are looking when you decide to flip orientation. The best any programmer could do is to assume they were on the first paragraph/sentence displayed in that view and then cause that paragraph/sentence to be at the top after rotation. Of course, that solution isn't really what you are asking for, as there will definitely be some "loss of position" after the rotation regardless.

So, I imagine, Kris put this as a lower priority than some other ideas he is working on that would actually have a solution that people will be happy with.

In the meantime, my recommendation to avoid getting caught out is to rotate the orientation at the beginning of a chapter/file. You will not lose your position because there is no "reflow error". Also, you can manually select and lock the orientation instead of letting it auto-switch. You won't ever have it switch accidentally.

Cheers!

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

... For example:

• Start in landscape: "6 pages left in This section".
• Rotate to portrait: "Last page in This section".
• Rotate to landscape: "10 pages left in This section".

It now settles down between last page (portrait) and 10 pages left (landscape). We can see that the difference in location is not minor: as much as 10 pages in this example, which can make finding your last reading position quite tricky.

YES! This isn't a matter of flipping back or forth a screen or two to find your place. The fact that you can't even count on finding your place again by switching back to the previous orientation is even more frustrating.

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Yes, Kris is aware of this issue. It was found during Beta testing and discussed a bit. Part of the problem is that there is no way to determine where on the current screen your eyeballs are looking when you decide to flip orientation. The best any programmer could do is to assume they were on the first paragraph/sentence displayed in that view and then cause that paragraph/sentence to be at the top after rotation.

This isn't what's happening in my experience. If it were simply a matter of being taken back to the first paragraph/sentence displayed before the change in rotation, I'd be okay with that. But the change in location is so great that I've given up trying to find my place after flipping back and forth 10+ screens.

Also, no other app I've used has this problem, including Kindle for iOS, Hyphen, MapleRead, Bluefire Reader. So some programmers have clearly figured out how to make this work.

... I imagine, Kris put this as a lower priority than some other ideas he is working on that would actually have a solution that people will be happy with.

In the meantime, my recommendation to avoid getting caught out is to rotate the orientation at the beginning of a chapter/file. You will not lose your position because there is no "reflow error". Also, you can manually select and lock the orientation instead of letting it auto-switch. You won't ever have it switch accidentally.

Actually, my solution has been to abandon Marvin 3 in favor of other switch to another ereading app that doesn't have this bug but still offers the features I'm looking for. I'm dismayed to hear that Kris likely considers this low priority and not worth fixing.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Yes, Kris is aware of this issue. It was found during Beta testing and discussed a bit. Part of the problem is that there is no way to determine where on the current screen your eyeballs are looking when you decide to flip orientation. The best any programmer could do is to assume they were on the first paragraph/sentence displayed in that view and then cause that paragraph/sentence to be at the top after rotation. Of course, that solution isn't really what you are asking for, as there will definitely be some "loss of position" after the rotation regardless[

I could understand if it was a screenful difference, but I am seeing 6 to 10 pages difference, where one page equates to multiple screens.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Actually, my solution has been to abandon Marvin 3 in favor of other ereading apps until this problem is fixed. I'm dismayed to hear that Kris likely considers this low priority and not worth fixing.

Sorry to hear that you have such a low tolerance... especially when I recommended some very easy work-arounds for your intolerable situation. I haven't had a single problem with losing my position when I follow those steps. But if that is a no-go item for you then to each his own. Good luck!

Originally Posted by ShellShock

I could understand if it was a screenful difference, but I am seeing 6 to 10 pages difference, where one page equates to multiple screens.

The actual number of screens it would change depends on multiple factors like font size, margin size, paragraph spacing, paragraph indent, the screen size and the difference in screen size between portrait/landscape, font justification, etc. These settings all contribute to the difference in the number of "screens" a particular chapter/file needs to display its content. If it takes 21 screens in landscape mode and 29 in portrait then you could see an error of 8 screens if you were near the end of the chapter, or only 1 screen if you were near the beginning (0 error if you are AT the beginning...).

In the notional fix I mentioned above (top paragraph/sentence remains at the top) you could conceivably still see a couple screens difference in your "position" based on those factors and where your eyeball was looking on that screen (more error if you were near the bottom of the screen than near the top).

I would also be very interested, from a programming perspective, to know how all those other apps are able to tell which word I'm looking at in order to not have reflow error when you change orientation I wonder if they are secretly spying on me with my own camera and doing major geometry math with my eyeball orientation

Have you tried the work-around steps I mentioned above? They do work quite well - and it allows you to enjoy all of the other benefits of M3 until a fix can be determined.

Cheers,

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Sorry to hear that you have such a low tolerance... especially when I recommended some very easy work-arounds for your intolerable situation. I haven't had a single problem with losing my position when I follow those steps. But if that is a no-go item for you then to each his own. Good luck!

I used rotation lock as a workaround when Marvin 3 first came out, and it is indeed an acceptable workaround if one is wed to Marvin and no other ereading app will do (which is not the case for me, but to each his own).

I have supported Marvin since the beginning, purchasing all versions, bugs and all, because I want it to continue to thrive and grow, even if it's not currently meeting my needs.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Have you tried the work-around steps I mentioned above? They do work quite well - and it allows you to enjoy all of the other benefits of M3 until a fix can be determined.

If I am in the middle of a long chapter when I want to break off reading then I don't want to read to the end of the chapter. Locking the orientation is not an option for me because I purposely want to switch between orientations, for reasons I don't want to go into (too boring). I trade off the inconvenience of losing my place with the convenience of switching orientations, even if I am in the middle of a long chapter.

So my main workaround is to just put up with it, but I would be very grateful if it was fixed, as this is top of my personal wish list (if fact I can't think of anything else I would want changing).