Freda - ebook reader program for Windows Mobile

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Oh, I turned on the tapping to turn pages functions. I find it highly annoying myself. I like to annotate my books and I kept turning pages...

As usual in such cases, ask 10 people and you get 10 different opinions....

[jimnutt]

A couple more feature suggestions: 1) A way to sort the book list by last read date and 2) an option to go directly to the last book being read when started up. Because of the way windows mobile will close apps in the background on occasion it would be nice to be able to get quickly back to the book (and place in the book obviously) you were reading on restart.

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by jimnutt

A couple more feature suggestions: 1) A way to sort the book list by last read date and 2) an option to go directly to the last book being read when started up. Because of the way windows mobile will close apps in the background on occasion it would be nice to be able to get quickly back to the book (and place in the book obviously) you were reading on restart.

Thanks for the thoughts. I've been working on the program, and have developed both these features. Re (1), I'm implementing a new 'bookshelf' functionality. The idea is that a book can be in one of two places:
- it can be in your bookshelf, which is a repository of all the books you have actually opened recently (probably I will limit its size to 50)
- or it can be in your library, which represents all the books you have access to from some source or other. Right now, that is 'all the book files in a certain folder' (and in the settings screen, you specify which folder to search, and whether to search subfolders). There's nothing to stop you having multiple libraries (and you can switch between them by using the settings screen to tell Freda to look in a different folder). The 'library' concept could be extended to include web-sites or any other places that you might get books from.

The Bookshelf displays your recently-opened books, sorted with the most-recently-read at the top, and showing thumbnail cover images etc. Behind the scenes, the bookshelf keeps track of various per-book settings (whether to use a different code-page/encoding, whether to override style-sheet settings for margin, indent, justification etc. for that book).

The Library just shows file name, location and type. This will make it possible for the library to open rather faster, even if it contains many thousands of books (my library does), because Freda won't have to open the book files (or any other files) in order to populate the library screen.

I have added an option to 'on startup, open the first book in the bookshelf'.

I'm currently tidying up a gazillion small bugs and formatting nasties, but I should have a new release 'real soon now'. Possibly by the weekend (but if not, it will be mid/late-December, as I am travelling for a while after that).

Cheers,

Jim

[jimnutt]

Great to hear! I'd offer to test it, but the touch screen on my phone died and I've discovered that Freda is decidedly keyboard unfriendly. Should have a new phone Monday though if you need someone to test.

And on the keyboard unfriendly front, keyboard shortcuts for the menu items would be most helpful, as it is I can't even load a book from the library.

[emai7s2]

Hi Jim,

I just wanted to let you know that I installed the latest beta of Freda on my Dell Axim X50v running WM2003 SE and Microsoft .Net Compact Framework version 2.

The program seems fast and relatively stable, but does have a few quirks:
- The 'Icon' view doesn't look nearly as good as your screenshots - all the images are rather scrunched together and hard to see, meaning that I have to use the 'Detail' view.
- The settings don't seem to stick. Even though I selected 'Detail' view, every time I launch Freda I get the distorted 'Icon' view.
- I would appreciate a 'Find again' function. Many of my documents are marked with 'NEXT SECTION', and I would like to be able to jump from section to section without having to enter 'next section' in the find field every time. Have a 'Find again' button on the screen would also be really nice ....
- My preferred document format is '.txt', and these files work very well in Freda.

Thanks again - I look forward to following Freda's progress.

[Jim Chapman]

Thankyou for your comments. They come just in time, as I am about to 'freeze' development for the next (1.0) version and start building it for release.

Originally Posted by emai7s2

- The 'Icon' view doesn't look nearly as good as your screenshots - all the images are rather scrunched together and hard to see, meaning that I have to use the 'Detail' view.
- The settings don't seem to stick. Even though I selected 'Detail' view, every time I launch Freda I get the distorted 'Icon' view.

Actually I have replaced all this stuff in v1.0, so there are now separate 'bookshelf' (all the books you have opened) and 'library' (all the books you might in principle open) views. The 'bookshelf' view is always icons and the 'library' view is always details. As for making the images look decent on all devices, this is actually a bit of a challenge, given the wide range of different screen sizes, resolutions and aspect ratios that exist. I've done my best, but it won't look lovely on all devices, I fear.

Originally Posted by emai7s2

- I would appreciate a 'Find again' function. Many of my documents are marked with 'NEXT SECTION', and I would like to be able to jump from section to section without having to enter 'next section' in the find field every time. Have a 'Find again' button on the screen would also be really nice ....

If the text you searched for is still on screen (and high-lighted) you can just tap that text to get the 'find again' effect. I guess that won't work for your use-case, so what I think I will do is set it up so that rather than starting with a blank search string, it starts up the find-text dialog form with the search string set to the same string you searched for last time.
I'll implement that now ...
As for putting buttons on the screen, I deliberately decided against implementing a 'tool-bar' on the screen. That one's partly a matter of personal taste (I personally think that a UI should be based on the standard features supported by the operating system, not on a strip of funny little pictures that look different, and do different things, in every application) and partly a question of what's easy to develop (because the operating system support for icon-strip toolbars is weak, it's a real pain to develop them, particularly if you have a diverse set of different screen sizes and shapes to cater for).
But the great thing about Open Source software is that if someone thinks I am wrong, they are free to take my source code and adapt it to build a program that works the way they want it to!
Cheers,
Jim

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by emai7s2

Hi Jim,

I just wanted to let you know that I installed the latest beta of Freda on my Dell Axim X50v running WM2003 SE and Microsoft .Net Compact Framework version 2.

You did? I just got an Axim X50V on ebay, and have had it for less than 24 hours. What did you need to do to install the .Net on it?

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by starrigger

You did? I just got an Axim X50V on ebay, and have had it for less than 24 hours. What did you need to do to install the .Net on it?

Just search for Net Compact Framework. For example at

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...9-0041345b3385.

It is a legally free download. Depending on the ROM you have 5.0 and below use 2.0, 6.0 - 6.5 use 3.5. 3.5 should work on 5.0 but is a little slow.

After downloading just follow install it by clicking it on your Axim. If it is a cab file copy the cab file to your device and run it. Install it into main memory, not any expansion card. Though you can copy the installation file to a card. Enjoy!

P.S.:
If you still have Windows 2003 on your Axim I highly recommend that you upgrade it to 5.0 or 6.0. With 2003 everything is gone and you need to do a complete reinstall if you ever let the bettery run empty! 5.0 also has much superior memory management. An upgrade is simple and easy, and you can find instructions at the site I gave you, xda-developers. Don't forget to also download copies of the original ROMs there, so you can always go back in case you like your old version better.

[rat_2665]

Thank you Jim for Freda. I'm looking forward to v1.0.

I've a HTC D2 with a capacitive screen. You can't take a stylus and the screen is very responsive. This is annoying with old win mobile ereader programs for example mobipocket reader. Your menue structure at reading is better (not so in the settings). Menues with big buttons, finger sliding and starting by longer touching are better suitable.
I'd like to have also a left margin. The screen of HD2 is big enough. And I have a problem with my Calibre originated epubs. Freda doesn't see any details and images of the ebooks.

[emai7s2]

Hi Jim

what I think I will do is set it up so that rather than starting with a blank search string, it starts up the find-text dialog form with the search string set to the same string you searched for last time.

Yes, thanks, I think that approach would work quite nicely.

With Freda installed I'm down to 4MB of RAM, so I will be glad when there's a version I can run from card.

Best wishes as you put the finishing touches on version 1.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by rat_2665

Thank you Jim for Freda. I'm looking forward to v1.0.

I've a HTC D2 with a capacitive screen. You can't take a stylus and the screen is very responsive. This is annoying with old win mobile ereader programs for example mobipocket reader. Your menue structure at reading is better (not so in the settings). Menues with big buttons, finger sliding and starting by longer touching are better suitable.
I'd like to have also a left margin. The screen of HD2 is big enough. And I have a problem with my Calibre originated epubs. Freda doesn't see any details and images of the ebooks.

Ah, the HTC HD2. Still waiting for xda-dev to hack that one so that you can flash custom ROMs on it. Seems like the perfect size. The biggest possible screen that still fits comfortably in my pants fron pocket. Though I do love the physical keyboard on my Pro2.

[T_Frain_K]

Originally Posted by Jim Chapman

The solution to (2) would be to create a \Program Files\Freda folder manually, copy the Freda files to it, and then adjust the start menu shortcut accordingly. Not ideal, and it would require messing about with a file explorer tool (I'd recommend Resco Explorer for the job). If anyone has tried that fix and found it doesn't work, I'd be very interested to get a report.

Thanks, that worked for me. Now I can give it a try on my new phone. Your app looks good by now for me, thank you for it

[starrigger]

I've installed Freda on my new-to-me Axim X50V, now with WM 6.1. I've only had a little time to play with it, but initial reaction is positive. (I also installed ZuluReader at the same time, so I could compare them. But I find Zulu's UI pretty confusing--hard to see how to open a book, for one thing--so I'm more interested in Freda right now.)

A couple of things that I'd like to see addressed, if you haven't already:

Like someone above, I found that switching Library view to Details didn't stick, and I wish it would.

When I adjusted the font under Settings, I couldn't get it any larger than 12 point. That's fine for ordinary reading, but when I'm reading in bed in the dark, I like to use a larger font, so that I can read myself to sleep without my glasses on. (I do this regularly with MobiReader.) I also tried tweaking the color (I find red on black to be very comfortable in a dark room), but that seemed to work only up to a point.

Anyway, I look forward to see the program develop. Thanks!

[emai7s2]

Originally Posted by starrigger

I've installed Freda on my new-to-me Axim X50V, now with WM 6.1.

I don't know if this is the place to ask, but - was it difficult upgrading from WM2003 to WM 6.1? And is it worth the effort?

If yes, maybe you could provide some simplified tips/links on how to do it - I had the impression that the upgrade was a pretty convoluted process.

[Jim Chapman]

Thanks for the feedback - very timely because I am building release 1.0 just now, for release over the weekend. So there is just time for a minor tweak to add a couple of larger font sizes. In terms of colour settings:

Originally Posted by starrigger

I also tried tweaking the color (I find red on black to be very comfortable in a dark room), but that seemed to work only up to a point.

What is it that's working 'only up to a point'? The form should let you select any colour combination that Windows Mobile is capable of displaying ... so am I missing something?

Regarding the 'detail' view in the library, I have re-worked all that code, to give separate 'library' and 'bookshelf' views; I hope that will suit.

Thanks for your interest in Freda,

Jim