Libra On highlighting, 'x-ray' and reading flow (libra h2o)

[flateric]

Hi

I recently switched from a 1st gen kindle to a kobo libra h2o, and I'm disappointed with the reading experience so far. I read mostly non-fiction with authors injection a lot of their own theories and such. This means that I'm very reliant on looking up stuff mentioned before in the book, or just unfamiliar words/terms. Here're the stuff that bothers me:

1.A term I don't know the meaning of made up of two or more words eg 'book worm' : on the kindle this would look up the term directly with the option of getting more details on the web. On the kobo it makes a highlight, gives me the option to search for it in the book or the web, ie no offline option at all. It also dismisses the highlight if I choose an option but doesn't if I don't. What?

2.A term from the author in the book I don't remember: I love the kindles xray option for this reason. One click, get the info I need, done. Here I get this awful search box which gives me ALL mentions of the term in the book, making me flip through a lot if I'm unlucky.

3.Reference rabbit hole: say I do point 2. multiple times in a row. For every new jump, the location stored of the 'grand parent' seems to disappear? I'm contrast to the kindle where I could just hit the back button, like in a browser, to eventually return where I started.

4.Footnotes: this seems to work, sometimes? That is, sometimes I get a nice pop up box, while other times I get thrown to the back of the book?

Is there a way to deal with this stuff? I'm aware the kobo is quite 'open' with the capabilites of installing Linux binaries. If there are software solutions to this would you please point me to them?

[compurandom]

I'm also annoyed that the kobo only keeps one or two levels of location history, and even when you flip between those, it erases the previous ones. Best solution is to bookmark the page before flipping around and searching. The location history use to be 2 deep, I think a recent firmware made it 3 now, and they mark it in the progress bar, so it's better, but not much.

As for looking up words, kobo does have in internal dictionary. Sometimes it's useful. You can even install translation dictionaries. Some people have complained that it's not great, and there are replacement dictionaries online mentioned in these forums. I think I have looked up multiple word combos (could be mistaken), but mostly phrases are not in the dictionary

I haven't played with x-ray so I'm not familiar with how it works, but your best bet for going back to previous term definitions is to highlight the term the first time you see it. Then at least it'll show up in your annotations list.

There's plenty of discussion in these forums about the idiosyncrasies of footnotes. Sometimes I'm annoyed with the popup, sometimes I'm annoyed I don't get the popup. I don't see a way to fix this just because it's not clear to even me as a human who might have authored the document when a link should be treated as a footnote, so I don't see a way to have rules for that to make everyone always happy.

[gilster]

The popup footnote question vexes me as well. I have a few books where I get the popup consistently (I really like it), and then suddenly I'll be thrown to the footnote page at the back of the book. Can someone explain what is going on with this? I find it exasperating.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by gilster

The popup footnote question vexes me as well. I have a few books where I get the popup consistently (I really like it), and then suddenly I'll be thrown to the footnote page at the back of the book. Can someone explain what is going on with this? I find it exasperating.

Epubs always go to the location of the footnote. Kepubs will popup a footnote if the rules for doing so are met. Other things such as having all html files listed properly come into play as well. See the kobolabs github page for Kobo EPUB Guidelines: Footnotes/Endnotes Are Fully Supported Across Kobo Platforms for a bit more information.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Epubs always go to the location of the footnote. Kepubs will popup a footnote if the rules for doing so are met. Other things such as having all html files listed properly come into play as well. See the kobolabs github page for Kobo EPUB Guidelines: Footnotes/Endnotes Are Fully Supported Across Kobo Platforms for a bit more information.

Plus, as we discovered recently, the ToC needs to be one-to-one with the internal files. That need is described as part of those guidelines.

[geek1011]

As I've mentioned before, I think a better way to do this would be to allow previewing a page (through the same mechanism as the slider works on the new reader) by long-pressing a link, which doesn't currently do anything.

I might consider doing a mod for this if I have time later and Kobo doesn't do it themselves.

[geek1011]

I might also be able to increase the number of history bookmarks stored with a patch.

Update: This seems doable. I'll test this and make a patch later:

Spoiler:

                            _ZN20BookmarkHistoryMixin12pushBookmarkERK8Bookmark:        // BookmarkHistoryMixin::pushBookmark(Bookmark const&)
0087bdb8 B0B5                   push       {r4, r5, r7, lr}
0087bdba 051D                   adds       r5, r0, #0x4
0087bdbc 0446                   mov        r4, r0
0087bdbe 00AF                   add        r7, sp, #0x0
0087bdc0 2846                   mov        r0, r5
0087bdc2 7BF414E8               blx        _ZN7QVectorI8BookmarkE6appendERKS0_@PLT ; QVector<Bookmark>::append(Bookmark const&)
0087bdc6 6368                   ldr        r3, [r4, #0x4]
0087bdc8 5968                   ldr        r1, [r3, #0x4]
0087bdca 0229                   cmp        r1, #0x2
0087bdcc 00DC                   bgt        loc_87bdd0

                            loc_87bdce:
0087bdce B0BD                   pop        {r4, r5, r7, pc}                     ; CODE XREF=_ZN20BookmarkHistoryMixin12pushBookmarkERK8Bookmark+32, _ZN20BookmarkHistoryMixin12pushBookmarkERK8Bookmark+96
                        ; endp

                            loc_87bdd0:
0087bdd0 9A68                   ldr        r2, [r3, #0x8]                       ; CODE XREF=_ZN20BookmarkHistoryMixin12pushBookmarkERK8Bookmark+20
0087bdd2 22F00040               bic        r0, r2, #0x80000000
0087bdd6 0028                   cmp        r0, #0x0
0087bdd8 F9D0                   beq        loc_87bdce

0087bdda 1868                   ldr        r0, [r3]
0087bddc 0128                   cmp        r0, #0x1
0087bdde 06D9                   bls        loc_87bdee

0087bde0 0023                   movs       r3, #0x0
0087bde2 22F00042               bic        r2, r2, #0x80000000
0087bde6 2846                   mov        r0, r5
0087bde8 76F4B0EC               blx        _ZN7QVectorI8BookmarkE11reallocDataEii6QFlagsIN10QArrayData16AllocationOptionEE@PLT ; QVector<Bookmark>::reallocData(int, int, QFlags<QArrayData::AllocationOption>)
0087bdec 6368                   ldr        r3, [r4, #0x4]

                            loc_87bdee:
0087bdee DD68                   ldr        r5, [r3, #0xc]                       ; CODE XREF=_ZN20BookmarkHistoryMixin12pushBookmarkERK8Bookmark+38
0087bdf0 5A59                   ldr        r2, [r3, r5]
0087bdf2 1D44                   add        r5, r3
0087bdf4 2846                   mov        r0, r5
0087bdf6 1368                   ldr        r3, [r2]
0087bdf8 9847                   blx        r3
0087bdfa 6368                   ldr        r3, [r4, #0x4]
0087bdfc 05F17001               add.w      r1, r5, #0x70                        ; argument "__src" for method memmove@PLT
0087be00 2846                   mov        r0, r5                               ; argument "__dest" for method memmove@PLT
0087be02 5B68                   ldr        r3, [r3, #0x4]
0087be04 013B                   subs       r3, #0x1
0087be06 DA01                   lsls       r2, r3, #0x7
0087be08 A2EB0312               sub.w      r2, r2, r3, lsl #4                   ; argument "__n" for method memmove@PLT
0087be0c 71F4EAE8               blx        memmove@PLT                          ; memmove
0087be10 6268                   ldr        r2, [r4, #0x4]
0087be12 5368                   ldr        r3, [r2, #0x4]
0087be14 013B                   subs       r3, #0x1
0087be16 5360                   str        r3, [r2, #0x4]
0087be18 D9E7                   b          loc_87bdce
0087be1a 00BF                   nop

This is where the history limit seems to be done (none of it's callers do any size checks), and it looks like a simple QVector::append followed by an inlined and optimized if (QVector::size() > 2) QVector::removeFirst(), which is actually a QVector::erase(start, start+1) (see https://code.woboq.org/qt5/qtbase/sr...E8iteratorES3_).

[geek1011]

Here's a libnickel patch (for 4.17.13651+) to increase the number of history markers:

Increase page navigation history:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: Increases the number of dots marking navigation history on the scrubber.
  # Replace the immediate value for the cmp r1, #2 before the bgt to the inlined
  # QVector::removeFirst() (i e. QVector::erase(start, start+1)):
  - BaseAddress: "BookmarkHistoryMixin::pushBookmark(Bookmark const&)"
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 18, Find: 2, Replace: 4} # note: you can set the replacement to whatever you like, but it MUST be > 1 or bad things will happen

I'll be adding it to the patch releases later.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Here's a libnickel patch to increase the number of history markers:

Increase page navigation history:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: Increases the number of dots marking navigation history on the scrubber.
  # Replace the immediate value for the cmp r1, #2 before the bgt to the inlined
  # QVector::removeFirst() (i e. QVector::erase(start, start+1)):
  - BaseAddress: "BookmarkHistoryMixin::pushBookmark(Bookmark const&)"
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 18, Find: 2, Replace: 4} # note: you can set the replacement to whatever you like, but it MUST be > 1 or bad things will happen

I'll be adding it to the patch releases later.

Thank you for this!

[flateric]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Here's a libnickel patch (for 4.17.13651+) to increase the number of history markers:

Increase page navigation history:
  - Enabled: yes
  - Description: Increases the number of dots marking navigation history on the scrubber.
  # Replace the immediate value for the cmp r1, #2 before the bgt to the inlined
  # QVector::removeFirst() (i e. QVector::erase(start, start+1)):
  - BaseAddress: "BookmarkHistoryMixin::pushBookmark(Bookmark const&)"
  - ReplaceInt: {Offset: 18, Find: 2, Replace: 4} # note: you can set the replacement to whatever you like, but it MUST be > 1 or bad things will happen

I'll be adding it to the patch releases later.

Wow, thanks a lot!!!

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Here's a libnickel patch (for 4.17.13651+) to increase the number of history markers:

Oooh, very cool. Now if we could get forward and back buttons to match, that would be extremely useful. I'll have to play with this one.

[flateric]

I just tried the patch out and it works well. Is there a way however to make the "back to" button follow the history correctly and not jump back and forth from the latest to markings?

Also, I'm having trouble finding any patch that will allow me highlight two or more words and look them up in a dictionary. Can someone please point me to one if it exists?

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by flateric

Also, I'm having trouble finding any patch that will allow me highlight two or more words and look them up in a dictionary. Can someone please point me to one if it exists?

There's an option in the Kobo config file's [FeatureSettings] section which I believe allows this. I don't think it's an official option so you'll have to edit the .conf file manually.

[FeatureSettings]
PhraseTranslation=true

I just tried looking up feng shui by selecting the two word and it seems to work OK.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by flateric

Also, I'm having trouble finding any patch that will allow me highlight two or more words and look them up in a dictionary. Can someone please point me to one if it exists?

The dictionary lookup definitely handles multiple words. @jackie_w showed that "feng shui" has meaning. And I know I looked up "Buffalo soldier" at some point. I suspect that it always looks up the highlight the dictionary. I think the difference is that for more than one word, if there is no result, you don't see the dictionary popup.

You can do what you want. Use the "Search in book" option. Then change where the search is from "Current read" to "Dictionary". Of course, it will only find matches if the text is in the dictionary. But, if it is a spelling mistake or tense, then you can change what you are searching for.