iLiad Bionic ipdf: better, faster, stronger than Sony Reader!

[scotty1024]

As my last experiment for the day I took what I learned from porting x48 and mrxvt to the iLiad and applied it to create my version 5 of ipdf.

I'm calling it the Bionic ipdf because it outperforms the Sony Reader on page turn speed. Its so fast you'll think Steve Austin himself is flipping pages for you.

The major experiment? What would happen if I did dmQTyping instead of dmQFull between pages?

Sure enough, getting rid of the black flash means you get faster page turns with a cool Matrix'y effect as the glyphs tumble into place on the e-Ink display. Plus if you encounter a Sony Reader user you can kick sand all over their Sony Reader by showing just how much faster your larger display can flip pages.

The ghost is very faint and frankly I find the black flash more visually annoying so I'd prefer to have an option to select this mode. In addition, not doing the black flash has to be saving power on page flips... so this could also be called the "EcoMode".

Please try it and tell me what you think.

[vranghel]

Wow! Sounds great scotty! Faster page turns that the sony reader, without the whole screen going black. Sounds like a project iRex should tackle themselves.

I wish i could try it out for myself but i dont know any programming and i'm really scared of bricking my iliad.

Keep up the good work and i really hope that someday all iliad users can enjoy the fruits of your labour!

[NatCh]

I'd like to see that (but not ~$700 dollars worth)! I've rather wondered what e-ink looks like without that black-flash. Any chance of a vid?

Nice work as always, scotty1024!

[DHer]

It looks freaking cool. But the ghosting is visible.

My camera battery is down, unfortunately, else i would make a vid right now.

[jæd]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Please try it and tell me what you think.

Any chance of source code so we learn from the great master...?

[tribble]

Yes, scotty or dher, please show the rest of us a vid.

Damn, i wish i had payed more attention before upgrading to 2.7.1

[Henry Loenwind]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

The ghost is very faint

Ghosting? Where?

Really, I cannot see any ghosting at all after flipping 8 pages.

Mmmh, update: When I start my current book at page 1 (cover image, very dark) and flip over page 2 (back cover, very dark) then there is no ghosting visible after 2 more page flips. When I start on a normal text page, I still can see some ghosting. You could check if it helps to paint the screen with a dark or middle gray once when starting ipdf.

BTW: Great work, Scotty. I like your ipdf very much. Just one request, could you please implement centering the page? I formatted all my pdfs on A5 with no side margins, as that gave me just the right margins with 2.6 and before...

[scotty1024]

Originally Posted by Henry Loenwind

Just one request, could you please implement centering the page? I formatted all my pdfs on A5 with no side margins, as that gave me just the right margins with 2.6 and before...

I'll get that back ported from my upcoming pluggable viewer.

[design256]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

As my last experiment for the day I took what I learned from porting x48 and mrxvt to the iLiad and applied it to create my version 5 of ipdf.

I'm calling it the Bionic ipdf because it outperforms the Sony Reader on page turn speed. Its so fast you'll think Steve Austin himself is flipping pages for you.

The major experiment? What would happen if I did dmQTyping instead of dmQFull between pages?

Sure enough, getting rid of the black flash means you get faster page turns with a cool Matrix'y effect as the glyphs tumble into place on the e-Ink display. Plus if you encounter a Sony Reader user you can kick sand all over their Sony Reader by showing just how much faster your larger display can flip pages.

The ghost is very faint and frankly I find the black flash more visually annoying so I'd prefer to have an option to select this mode. In addition, not doing the black flash has to be saving power on page flips... so this could also be called the "EcoMode".

Please try it and tell me what you think.

Nice work Scotty.

You may be interested to read Irex's comments about dmQTyping here:

http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?t=637

They are probably being over-paranoid - I can't see any ghosting problems at all - but then maybe my Iliad is a very good one?

[scotty1024]

Originally Posted by design256

Nice work Scotty.

You may be interested to read Irex's comments about dmQTyping here:

http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?t=637

They are probably being over-paranoid - I can't see any ghosting problems at all - but then maybe my Iliad is a very good one?

Thanks for the pointer, nothing there I hadn't figured out with strace already.

They could have released scribble any time they wanted to, no need to wait for 2.8 to release new ipdf source.

The more they clutch at the sources, the more they try to limit our development, the more control will slip through their fingers until they become: irrelevant.

[yvanleterrible]

Will not the paleness described by certain users of the PRS, be accentuated when bypassing screen flashing? If not there might be more pronounced ghosting effect when the battery is low then? Logically that is.

[jæd]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

The more they clutch at the sources, the more they try to limit our development, the more control will slip through their fingers until they become: irrelevant.

Where's your source code then... Highlighting the changes so others can learn from it and port more software....? And I highly doubt Irex will be irrelevant... Do you have your e-ink printing press tucked away...?

[yokos]

[EDIT: Nov 16th] - ok, 2.7.1 users can run sh now, this thread & posted zip file is for 2.7.0 users only

I installed ipdf rev. 5. scotty1034, brilliant as usual.
Yes, it's much faster. Ugly black bars [pdf bounding box] are gone...

Installation of scotty1024's ipdf rev 5 for other dummies like me
what you need

• 2.7.0 firmware. if you have udpated to 2.7.1, it won't work for you.
• STICKY: You already installed the feature to run shell scripts by clicking on files with the ending .sh in contentlister. Doing this installation is called [SHELL] hack here @ mobileread.
  If you didn't already install this feature, you have to do this before you can install ipdf.
  In this thread is described how you can install the [SHELL] hack.
  [EDIT] I have posted a »step-to-step-guide to do the [SHELL] hack« there.
  Again, if you have 2.7.1, you will not be able to install the [SHELL] hack.
• ipdf5.sh.zip downloaded

what you have to do

• Extract ipdf5.sh.zip [files ipdf & ipdf5.sh] to newspapers folder of iLiad's USB drive.
• Unmout iLiad's USB drive, press iLiad's "news" button
• Click on ipdf5.sh
• Green Lamp blinks. You see a new entry "xpdf.orig" [a back-up copy of xpdf] in Contentlister. Blinking stops. This it was. [no reboot needed]

what you get
a faster pdf viewer.

Any risks?
No risks, I think. I used ipdf5.sh & got no bricked iLiad. er_registry.txt was not changed.

Contents of ipdf5.sh

cd /usr/bin
cp xpdf /opt/content/newspapers/xpdf.orig
mv xpdf xpdf.orig
cp /opt/content/newspapers/ipdf xpdf

[scotty1024]

Originally Posted by yokos

I installed ipdf rev. 5. scotty1034, brilliant as usual.
Yes, it's much faster. Ugly black bars [pdf bounding box] are gone...

Installation of scotty1024's ipdf rev 5 for other dummies like me

Thank you, and excellent work on the install script, much appreciated!

My battery life is much better with the black flash gone. My iLiad spent just 10 minutes recharging this morning when it normally spends a good half hour recharging after reading on the bus ride.

Anyone else noticing any battery life effects?

I've got ideas for tweaking the code again to affect the ghosting effect and still not need the black flash.

[yokos]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

Anyone else noticing any battery life effects?

It's to early for me to anwser this. [few hour's since ipdf is installed]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

I've got ideas for tweaking the code again to affect the ghosting effect and still not need the black flash.

Sounds nice.
# Ghosting is visible in the areas of page, which are seldom used [for example margin of image description in my text books], but it's better than ok.
# Ghosting depends of type of text. Novel has much less visible ghosting than a text book with a lot equations [-> more non continuous usage of page, than in a novel].