[Sugar-devel] FBReader

[Samuel Klein]

Saymindu - is this different from what Browse does (re: providing a
wrapper for launching various activities based on format)?  I copy
sugar-devel.   SJ


> On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 1:32 PM, Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 1:46 AM, Samuel Klein <sj at laptop.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Can you say more about how much work it would take to make 'Read'
>>> really mean reading and not just reading-pdfs?  Perhaps a more
>>> peaceful parent program with that name could choose to launch the
>>> current read [which should be renamed] or another program [for other
>>> file formats] ...
>>>
>>> SJ
>>>
>>
>> Well, assuming that the FBReader activity is installed, the Journal
>> would be the parent program ;-).
>>
>> On a more serious note, I understand that you want to ensure that the
>> verb Read is used for reading everything, and not just PDFs. I'll take
>> a look at the possibility of having a thin wrapper which takes care of
>> launching the appropriate activity as and when needed (not sure if
>> this is doable or not - I'll need to chew a bit of the Sugar activity
>> launcher code)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Sayamindu
>>
>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 5:45 PM, Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Hi SJ,
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 11:42 PM, Samuel Klein <sj at laptop.org> wrote:
>>>>> Sayamindu --
>>>>>
>>>>> Sweet.  How easy would it be to add this as a new reader-type to Read?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Unfortunately the current avatar of Read is quite tightly coupled with
>>>> the Evince backend, so it would need quite a bit of work.
>>>>
>>>>> Regarding mime-types, let's revisit making one-click reading from
>>>>> Browse work as expected (add item to journal, launch new activity to
>>>>> open it).  Michael says this is possible under the current rainbow
>>>>> implementation.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'll try to talk to Michael about this. The mime-type issue is
>>>> completely different though. I'm not yet able to pinpoint the cause
>>>> exactly, but I suspect it has something to do with Browse's download
>>>> code and Sugar's implementation of the shared-mime-info Freedesktop
>>>> standard. I have a patched Browse at the moment which seems to work,
>>>> but I'll also like to try to check out Tomeu's suggestion.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Sayamindu
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> SJ
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 5:26 PM, Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 5:21 PM, Nikolay Pultsin <geometer at mawhrin.net> wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi Samuel, Sayamindu,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm glad to know you both.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> http://dev.laptop.org/~sayamindu/fbreader_sugar.png
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This screenshot looks great. I'm really impressed with such unusual look
>>>>>>> of our program. ;) Are you sure it is really FBReader? :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Can I publish this screenshot at http://www.fbreader.org/?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have now a better screenshot at
>>>>>> http://dev.laptop.org/~sayamindu/fbreader_sugar_v2.png (I don't think
>>>>>> the design will change much after this - unless I get flamed by
>>>>>> someone regarding the UI ;-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have a working activity now (which works on the XO independently
>>>>>> without any external software dependency as well). I'll take a few
>>>>>> more days to figure out the mime type mess in Sugar (I have already
>>>>>> started annoying the Sugar developers and have a couple of possible
>>>>>> solutions), and then release a bundle which can simply be downloaded
>>>>>> and run on a XO with a recent build.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A lot of work still needs to be done for a good reading experience,
>>>>>> but I'm quite happy with what has been achieved in this week. And
>>>>>> kudos to Mikhail, Nikolay and the rest of the FBReader dev team for
>>>>>> their superb work. FBReader works absolutely smoothly on the limited
>>>>>> XO hardware - no glitches, no sluggishness, nothing :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>> Sayamindu