Opie-reader Support, An apology Options

[TimW]

I'm pretty sure I've lost track of who I've promised what recently. If anyone is waiting for something from me and hasn't yet had it, feel free to remind me.

I'm notoriously absent-minded and I had a spell in hospital recently which seems to have made it worse (temporarily, I hope) so please bear with me and do please remind me of any outstanding unfulfilled promises.

[rebski]

I'm pretty sure I've lost track of who I've promised what recently. If anyone is waiting for something from me and hasn't yet had it, feel free to remind me.

I'm notoriously absent-minded and I had a spell in hospital recently which seems to have made it worse (temporarily, I hope) so please bear with me and do please remind me of any outstanding unfulfilled promises.

Hi Tim

Sorry to hear that you have been unwell. I hope you are now fully recovered and feeling better.

So far as I am concerned a little absent mindedness is quite normal so don’t fret too much about that.


Opie Reader is an essential Zaurus app and I am looking forward to using it on a C1000 (just as soon as it becomes available).

While I recall some recent discussion on the app, I can't be sure of specifics, sorry.

[padishah_emperor]

Hope you're ok Tim ;-)
-Francis

[tovarish]

hope you are well tim. take your time with respect to underline of links.

tovarish

[sepsep]

it useful for me
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/HA/00001.html

hope can help

[TimW]

tovarish: Underlining! That was one which I had forgotten. That makes me feel a bit better but I think that there is at least one more....

sepsep: Like the link and I generally follow the advice, but I'm pretty sure the bulk of it is due to the after effects of general anesthesia which the Surgeon reckons'll last about 6 months in my particular case (and I'm 3 months in already).

All, thanks for the well-wishes. The problem is potentially pretty serious (can't quite bring myself to type the C word) but I'm hoping, with good reason rather than just PMA, that after my next test I'll be able to say "I'm all clear now".

[xjqian]

wish you all the best. And thanks for the already wonderful opie-reader package

[tovarish]

The problem is potentially pretty serious (can't quite bring myself to type the C word) but I'm hoping, with good reason rather than just PMA, that after my next test I'll be able to say "I'm all clear now".

Oh! I didnt know it was that serious. My wishes again for your good health and my thanks for opie reader. It is the most used program in my Z.

tovarish

[Teletubbie]

Dear Tim,
best wishes for your health from me too.
Sam

[slapout]

Tim,

Hope you're feeling better. I just wanted to say that I've enjoyed using Opie Reader. It is one of the most professional and useful programs I've found for the Z.

[CoreDump]

Tim,

Hope you're feeling better. I just wanted to say that I've enjoyed using Opie Reader. It is one of the most professional and useful programs I've found for the Z.

I second that. Best wishes from me

[Flandry]

I also want to thank you for that great software. It made my switch from a PalmOS device with plucker possible, and the number of options and configurability of Opie-reader is better than plucker!

I'm having weird problems with the reader lately. In particular, the behavior when opening multiple files and then trying to close one is strange... it simply doesn't close one. The program refuses to close completely when that happens, and can only be "kill"ed. By multiple files, i mean in that list of "quick open" files. This description probably isn't making much sense, because i never did really figure out how it's supposed to work. The other problem involves full screen mode. If the Z blanks or goes into standby, it comes back in a weird semi-fullscreen mode.

As far as requests... highlighting and annoting behaves erratically, and i'm not sure if it's not fully implemented or what. My personal mini-wish would be a quick-bookmark (like a ribbon), a simple icon or tab that allows quick switching between several locations, that could also be set quickly.

[TimW]

I'm having weird problems with the reader lately.  In particular, the behavior when opening multiple files and then trying to close one is strange... it simply doesn't close one.  The program refuses to close completely when that happens, and can only be "kill"ed.  By multiple files, i mean in that list of "quick open" files.  This description probably isn't making much sense, because i never did really figure out how it's supposed to work.

The "quick open" file list is a compromise between having a full "Multi-Document Interface" (MDI) and limiting the amount of memory and screen estate a tru MDI solution would require. Basically, any file on the MDI list has its state (including, optionally, its display and layout settings). If you have saved a config with the same name as the file which you are about to open (which is the default when you save a config) then the config gets loaded too. Otherwise, only the current position in the file is saved plus some format specific information (IIRC this is currently limited to the list of visited links in Plucker documents).

This enables you to get most of the benefits of an MDI but you don't actually have to have the file buffers etc in memory, and you don't lose any of the display to tabs etc (which may not be so important on the larger screen devices but is very important on my SL5000 8^) ).

All the info required to maintain that list is stored in a file which you can get to by opening a terminal and typing

ls -al ~/Applications/uqtreader

You should see two files and two directories (in some ROMs you might have to do

cd
ls -al Applications/uqtreader

because the home directory is different in the terminal than when running from the GUI).

The file of interest here is ".openfiles". It sounds like yours may have become read-only for some reason so try and delete it (but remember that this will remove *all* files from the list of open files):

cd
rm -f Applications/uqtreader/.openfiles

Let me know what happens and I may be able to help further if more is required.

The other problem involves full screen mode.  If the Z blanks or goes into standby, it comes back in a weird semi-fullscreen mode.

Qtopia doesn't properly support a fullscreen mode so it is almost impossible to get it working completely correctly. My implementation is based on a howto published on the sharp developer site but it still doesn't really work properly. In the latest version (I'm not sure if it is in 0.7h or if you need my current unstable) you can hide the tools and status bar and get full screen except for the launcher bar at the bottom (which otherwise persistently tries to overwrite whatever you write on the screen) so may be more useable for you.

As far as requests... highlighting and annoting behaves erratically, and i'm not sure if it's not fully implemented or what.

In what way does it behave erratically? It should be fully implemented but I have to admit that I never use it so it doesn't get tested very often so may get broken without me noticing from time to time.

My personal mini-wish would be a quick-bookmark (like a ribbon), a simple icon or tab that allows quick switching between several locations, that could also be set quickly.

How does that differ from the current bookmarking? You can put the "Bookmark Here" and "Goto Bookmark" icons on the toolbar which enable you to mark the current position by tapping on the icon (and then editing the default name supplied which is based on the first word on the page, if required) and will let you go to a bookmark by tapping on the other icon and then tapping on whichever bookmark you require. If you want to make bookmarks even more easily you can set it so that screen taps call up the annotation dialog (an annotation is just a bookmark with added text so you don't have to add any extra text). What am I missing? (Again, I seldom use bookmarks so it wouldn't surprise me if I hadn't quite got the functionality right).

[tovarish]

Hi tim

When I change to fullscreen mode I get this black space (the area is same as the non text area in normal mode). The black area goes away on pgup or pgdn. I wonder if you know about this bug.

Is it possible to add more functionality to the quick document list like sort by name, last time opened, size, etc, present document is selected so scrolling from top is not necessary.
Like plucker for palm is it also possible to show the quick document list when no further "back" is possible (in other words opened document is in its home page). This would really help me with one hand operation (quick document list -> open document -> use fingers for links ...-> back ...-> back to quick document list -> new document).

I know I am asking a lot with your current health but as long as it is in the wishlist I dont care how long it takes.

Lastly I would like to take a look at the current unstable version if possible.

thanks
tovarish

[TimW]

When I change to fullscreen mode I get this black space (the area is same as the non text area in normal mode). The black area goes away on pgup or pgdn. I wonder if you know about this bug.

Maybe. Which device, rom and opie-reader version? Does it go away if you disable double-buffering (Settings/Misc tab)? Does it go away in the current version (see below).

Is it possible to add more functionality to the quick document list like sort by name, last time opened, size, etc, present document is selected so scrolling from top is not necessary.

I've tried to keep the amount of data stored about each file quite small but I should be able to add most of this, plus anything else which people think is worthwhile given that I'll be storing more data in the flash area (actually in ~/Applications which I've moved to SD on my device).

Like plucker for palm is it also possible to show the quick document list when no further "back" is possible (in other words opened document is in its home page). This would really help me with one hand operation (quick document list -> open document -> use fingers for links ...-> back ...-> back to quick document list -> new document).

I'll take a look.

Lastly I would like to take a look at the current unstable version if possible.

Someone is sorting me out some webspace which I should be able to maintain more easily. There is a moderately recent version for Sharp ROMs at this link but if you want the absolute latest, or an opie version e-mail me at timwentford at hotmail dot com any time.