FBReader searching

[pruss]

I was wondering if anybody could tell me how fast FBReader's (and the built-in ebook reader's, if it has it) text searching is (say, per mb of compressed Plucker text) on the iLiad. Searching is crucial for me... Thanks for any help!

[JSWolf]

Remember, FBReader won't read DRM laced books. So if you need to search those, you are out of luck with FBReader.

[wallcraft]

For FBReader on a Windows PC, searching for Rock (not ignoring case) was virtually instantaneous in the Plucker version of Project Gutenberg EBook of A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. This version is one HTML file (336 KB), but I have multi-section versions of the same e-book in Plucker format (i.e. plucked from multiple nested HTML files) and the search time was about the same.

You should check on a Desktop (Windows or Linux) that FBReader search will fit your needs. It searches within a single e-book and is a page-based search, i.e. if you search for "the" it will show you the 1st page containing the (all occurrences highlighted) and clicking next takes you to the next page containing the (not the 2nd occurrence of "the" in the document). Also, searching for "the" will find "they". I'm sure the developers would welcome suggestions for improvement (e.g. whole word only search).

[pruss]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

For FBReader on a Windows PC, searching for Rock (not ignoring case) was virtually instantaneous in the Plucker version of Project Gutenberg EBook of A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. This version is one HTML file (336 KB), but I have multi-section versions of the same e-book in Plucker format (i.e. plucked from multiple nested HTML files) and the search time was about the same.

A better test, if you would be so kind as to run it, would be to search for a word not in the text, like "junkx", since then one searches through the whole text.

For the record, Plucker on my Palm TX searches Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, which is 4.5 mb of Plucker text (probably about 10-20mb of html, in hundreds of separate pages) in about 48 seconds. That's a bit slower than I would like, but usable. (On the other hand, searching through the complete Aquinas corpus in Latin is not usable, since that's 20 times bigger.)

You should check on a Desktop (Windows or Linux) that FBReader search will fit your needs. It searches within a single e-book and is a page-based search, i.e. if you search for "the" it will show you the 1st page containing the (all occurrences highlighted) and clicking next takes you to the next page containing the (not the 2nd occurrence of "the" in the document). Also, searching for "the" will find "they". I'm sure the developers would welcome suggestions for improvement (e.g. whole word only search).

Thanks! I didn't realize there were desktop builds of FBReader.

My Palm TX's buttons are giving out, and it may be time for a replacement device, primarily for ebook use. I put a lot of effort into modifying Plucker on the Palm platform to do what I want it to do, and I would ideally not want to duplicate that effort, but that may not be possible.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by pruss

For the record, Plucker on my Palm TX searches Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, which is 4.5 mb of Plucker text (probably about 10-20mb of html, in hundreds of separate pages) in about 48 seconds. That's a bit slower than I would like, but usable. (On the other hand, searching through the complete Aquinas corpus in Latin is not usable, since that's 20 times bigger.)

If you have a link to the 4.5 MB file I'm sure someone with an iLiad will test it for you (I am holding out for the new big battery version). It is my understanding that FBReader reads the entire document into memory, so the important time may be how long it takes to open. I have never heard of anyone running out of memory when using FBReader, but a 80+ MB Plucker file might well do so.

[pruss]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

If you have a link to the 4.5 MB file I'm sure someone with an iLiad will test it for you (I am holding out for the new big battery version). It is my understanding that FBReader reads the entire document into memory, so the important time may be how long it takes to open. I have never heard of anyone running out of memory when using FBReader, but a 80+ MB Plucker file might well do so.

The memory limit might be bad, as it's the sort of thing that's hard to fix in the code.

Here's a link: http://www.palmgear.com/?xyz=49703