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Open Source PDF Reader!!

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matrixcore Page Icon Posted 2006-04-15 5:36 AM
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Yes, you're reading it right. now there's an alternative PDF viewer.

It's called PocketXpdf and it's based in Xpdf sources. it's GPL and it's free. i've tried it in a CE.NET 4.1 device and it works like a charm. It renders the PDFs beautifully (albeit not as fast as one could wish). It lacks the find function, and the current version is PPC-only (can be hacked for ce.net) but it's OSS, so maybe someone in here will grab the sources and make a HPC version. In the HPC2000 device i tried it, it ran, but the PDF was heavy (HPC Newsletter 2005 compilation), so it refused to open the file.

you can grab it here: http://pocketxpdf.sourceforge.net/

the source code is available from the same URL. I'm gonna set up EVC3 and then HPC2k SDK to see what can i do.
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David G Page Icon Posted 2006-04-15 7:30 AM
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Pretty slick on my Neta!

It needs a little work (locked up on view as text) but nicey rendered screens.

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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2006-04-15 9:27 AM
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lets see if it can handle accented characters...

update: it can, amazing piece of software.
and i think it is fast enough...

i even tried it on the dot 340 (has 240x320 and cenet), and if i rotated the screen to 320x240 before opening a pdf it was decent! (no scrolling needed!)
amazing that it would even run on this cenet core pda.

maybe the only problems: when i scroll it doesnt look nice, so i have to scroll the whole page at once and that requires the stylus (at least i didn't find out how to jump)
and it causes little slowdowns in the system sometimes (? not sure)

how to hack: aygshell.dll (i used 16.5k version) and OS version rewrite. this is for cenet 4.1 (or maybe 3.0 too).

probably will not run on 2.11 and i can't try as i don't have a jornada 820 and the software is ARM only.
for 2.11 users, primer is still the only option, or maybe the cenet viewers (they had a 2.11 version, so lets see if they can be hacked)

but as this thing is open source, someone could build a ce 2.11 version, matrixcore please?

now is there a CE port of xchat?

btw, why is this in the news & editorials?

Edited by cmonex 2006-04-15 10:21 AM
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Derek.HPCManiac
Derek.HPCManiac Page Icon Posted 2006-04-15 9:42 AM
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runs in ce 2.11??
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matrixcore Page Icon Posted 2006-04-16 2:41 AM
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cmonex - 2006-04-15 8:27 AM

lets see if it can handle accented characters...

update: it can, amazing piece of software.
and i think it is fast enough...

maybe the only problems: when i scroll it doesnt look nice, so i have to scroll the whole page at once and that requires the stylus (at least i didn't find out how to jump)
and it causes little slowdowns in the system sometimes (? not sure)

how to hack: aygshell.dll (i used 16.5k version) and OS version rewrite. this is for cenet 4.1 (or maybe 3.0 too).

but as this thing is open source, someone could build a ce 2.11 version, matrixcore please?

btw, why is this in the news & editorials?


yes, it's an amazing piece of sw. I think there's no way of scrolling using keys as this is a PPC app. you can define "keys" for doing actions, but i think it maps them to ppc buttons.

Yes it does run in CE3, but i don't know wether it can open files or not, i just tried it to the point of running.

I don't think it'll run in CE < 3 because it's a PPC app, so it needs aygshell stub and things.

About the open source thingie, that's the great thing about it!! one can change it to it's own desires. I'm installing EVC right now, i'll see what can i do to get it at least working in a non-PPC version, but i warn you i'm not a dev in any way.

wish me luck
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2006-04-16 10:11 AM
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matrixcore - 2006-04-16 8:41 AM

yes, it's an amazing piece of sw. I think there's no way of scrolling using keys as this is a PPC app. you can define "keys" for doing actions, but i think it maps them to ppc buttons.


you didnt try it? it works fine!!

i defined left and right arrow on my sig3 to go to next page or back to previous page. but i didnt see an action for jumping more than one line. i want to jump from the first half of the page to the bottom half that cant be seen on the screen. sure i can do that with the stylus but.. do i want too much? lol


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wish me luck


GOOD luck!
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sophisticatedleaf Page Icon Posted 2006-04-16 2:36 PM
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The source is pretty big..
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esw Page Icon Posted 2006-04-19 5:05 PM
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Sweet, it would be awesome if we could get a pdf reader for hpc/pro devices running. I started trying to compile it for my mp780, but i have pretty much no experience with c/c++, so it's pretty hard to decipher the errors, but I plan on giving it a shot.

I've got the eVC++ 3.0 project files set up though, if anyone wants them; though i'm sure a lot of the settings are still wrong I think they should have all the files included properly.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2006-04-20 4:03 AM
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Doesn't the 780 come with Primer installed? (Or is that just the 790?)
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BrianD
BrianD Page Icon Posted 2006-04-20 4:32 AM
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CE Geek - 2006-04-20 4:03 AM

Doesn't the 780 come with Primer installed? (Or is that just the 790?)


Just the 790.
In any case, an open source pdf reader for hpc would be very interesting not only because xpdf is a good application (and more modern than the now obsolete Acrobat Reader 1.0/2.0 or Primer), but also because people could learn how to port some good open source apps from *nix to the hpc platform.

This is what lacks, in my humble opinion, in the work done in the past by R. Keuchel: on his site there is no information on the porting process itself!
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2006-04-20 7:51 AM
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BrianD - 2006-04-20 10:32 AM

In any case, an open source pdf reader for hpc would be very interesting not only because xpdf is a good application (and more modern than the now obsolete Acrobat Reader 1.0/2.0 or Primer),


acrobat 2.0? obsolete?? it has always been able to open any pdf for me. complicated ones with strange chars too. so why is it obsolete?

about the porting process.. it isn't something that can be described i guess..? maybe a few tricks but not much more.

Edited by cmonex 2006-04-20 7:52 AM
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BrianD
BrianD Page Icon Posted 2006-04-20 12:46 PM
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cmonex - 2006-04-19 1:51 PM
acrobat 2.0? obsolete?? it has always been able to open any pdf for me. complicated ones with strange chars too. so why is it obsolete?


Sorry, my fault. Just a confusion due to having too many things to do while writing the post.
I wrote Acrobat but I was actually thinking to the free pdf reader on my Psion 5mx which is really terrible.

Quote

about the porting process.. it isn't something that can be described i guess..? maybe a few tricks but not much more.


I do not agree here. Basically, as far as I understand, one takes the original sources, maybe stripping them to reduce size, adds some code for the graphical interface (if any), and compiles the final code for the HPC/PPC targets, tweaking the makefiles with the proper libraries, optimizations, etc.
Well, the whole process can be described, allowing other people to repeat the process and learn... standing on the shoulders of the giants...
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2006-04-20 2:43 PM
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BrianD - 2006-04-20 6:46 PM
Sorry, my fault. Just a confusion due to having too many things to do while writing the post.
I wrote Acrobat but I was actually thinking to the free pdf reader on my Psion 5mx which is really terrible.


I do not agree here. Basically, as far as I understand, one takes the original sources, maybe stripping them to reduce size, adds some code for the graphical interface (if any), and compiles the final code for the HPC/PPC targets, tweaking the makefiles with the proper libraries, optimizations, etc.
Well, the whole process can be described, allowing other people to repeat the process and learn... standing on the shoulders of the giants...


hey no problem. yes i agree the pdf+ on the psion is terrible. it isn't even stable..

about the porting process.. well surely one certain porting process can be described to help others but it won't be the solution to all problems
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BrianD
BrianD Page Icon Posted 2006-04-20 3:30 PM
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cmonex - 2006-04-19 8:43 PM
hey no problem. yes i agree the pdf+ on the psion is terrible. it isn't even stable..


And terribly slooooooow, too, to the point of being almost unusable
A good pdf reader is, in my opinion, the only application that is really lacking in Psion machines, while the average quality of Psion apps is surprisingly high.

I have a strong bias on this: Psions have been my first handhelds, and I still love them. I have owned a Revo, a fantastic machine with an excellent form-factor but lacking on the expandability side and with a terrible charging circuit, then a 5 and now a 5mx Pro (with german keyboard layout and english OS).

A very good thing with Psions is that, at present, most applications have been released as freeware so that you have a wealth of software for your machines. Also, there is a very good site collecting most of them.

It is a pity that the same does not happen with Windows CE. I really don't understand why software houses don't release their software freely once they are out of business or when they don't support that product line anymore.

Also software house still working on the platform could do that for older releases, in order to let customers test the software legally and attract them to newer and more powerful versions of the same applications. I think, for example, to Softmaker: letting users test freely older versions of Textmaker and Planmaker could probably attract more users to up-to date paid versions.
And this is quite common in the Windows world!
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BrianD
BrianD Page Icon Posted 2006-04-20 4:21 PM
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cmonex - 2006-04-19 8:43 PM
about the porting process.. well surely one certain porting process can be described to help others but it won't be the solution to all problems


Of course, but would nevertheless be a guide for others
I have just started to try to understand how applications like LaTeX, gnuplot or GPari were ported to Windows CE. Well, actually I have started from the much simpler sed...
Some documentation would help much...

Trying to port apps is important in my opinion, because it would open the door to a wealth of new good software on a platform like Windows CE which is starving because of lack of development.
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