MMCE (Picture and album viewer): English language CE.net port

Thanks to Kimstudio, I came accross of a completely unknown application (in the western world), called "MangaMeeyaCE".
Mangameeya was originally made as a Manga (Comics) viewer for the Japanese market. It is definitely more than a Comics Ebook viewer: in fact, it is the most powerful image and picture album viewing application for Windows CE. As such, I would compare it to TCPMP, which is by far the best multimedia application for HPCs.

Mangameeya was a GPL freeware application, but its development has been stopped and the project was unfortunately abandoned for some reason.
Apart from a Chinese PPC and Win32 translation, Mangameeya was available in Japanese only.
This WinCE.net HPC port was initially made for the Sigmarion 3, and has never been translated before.

Main features:

-Read Image albums ( Mangas, Comics, or any picture/photo album) in RAR (CBR) or ZIP (CBZ) formats, including password protected ZIP or RAR archives
-Read all common picture formats ( BMP, PNG, GIF, JPG), and can be used a standalone picture viewer
-Extract ZIP and RAR archives
-Browse and manage all pictures and image albums with a convenient explorer-like UI with thumbnails (including all common file management like a copy/cut/paste, delete, etc...):

Special features:

-Very fast picture decoding (one of the fastest WinCE image viewing apps - does not rely on GX.dll)
-an impressive number of options to display files, including powerful filters: there is absolutely no equivalent among WinCE/PPC applications (commercial or freeware). Only desktop applications offer so many options.
-Folders containing pictures use thumbnails instead of standard icons ( you can see the first picture of any folder, without opening it)
-Everything is configurable: menus and toolbars can be completely customized ; hotkeys, hotspots and mouse gestures can be applied for all program functions
-All settings are stored in an INI file ( nothing is stored in the registry)

The following features were added by me :

-CAB installer ; automatic file association for CBZ and CBR album formats and common picture formats
-Dialogs have been completely redesigned to fit HVGA screens (like the NEC Mobilepro 900c) and Landscape QVGA screens ( like GPS PNAs)
-New icons and artwork
-Generic ARM processors compatibility ( CE.net only)

Warning:

-This application is not for impatient newbies: if you are not willing to take some time to learn a few basics, then you may want to steer clear... You may want to try the included Win32 PC version first ( no install needed).
-Like most Japanese books, albums are opened from right to left by default (Manga readers and Japanese speakers know what I mean), but you can change this setting (View menu)
-This translation is definitely not perfect: I am not a native English speaker, and it was really hard to understand all the Japanese menus, dialogs and countless resource strings... !
-Not all toolbar graphics have been implemented ( there are approx. 200 toolbar icons...): only small toolbar icons are available in this package.

Download the English WinCE.Net and Desktop PC version here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/40824736/MMCE.rar.html

If you download and try this package, please leave a comment... I spent countless hours on this project, and I'd really like to have some feedback. Thanks for your understanding...



Edited by Geared2003 2007-07-03 2:55 PM






Attachments
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0703202522.jpg (60KB - 6 downloads)

very cool. will put this up on my site too with the others, soon.

Now I just need to find some comics to read...

Hi,

I am trying to get this to run on my SIMpad (with CE.NET 4.1), which has an excellent screen for reading, but I am having problems. The app installs, registers file types and everything but I get no window when the app starts. It does start/create the process, so much that I have to reset the machine to make it stop

I have checked my memory settings, tried to start the app by itself or by opening a cbz-file but no success so far.

Any ideas?


/Rickard

Edited by RickardJ 2007-07-04 6:04 AM

Geared2003,

Report: the MMCE from your package runs very well on Nexio S155 (ce.net 4.1).

I just tried it for several minutes before I went to work this morning, but from my view I can say the translation quality is more than good.

I totally appreciate your countless work for this, the menu items and option strings are indeed a lot! I like this native HPC English version of MMCE (I only have a PPC + aygshell version) and also the integrated English PC desktop version is awesome.

Hoho, I saw TinTin saying something I don't know!

RickardJ: the Simpad problem is not related to the OS, because this application was made for the Sig 3 ( WinCE 4.1), and it also works on the Nexio. I am afraid that it is a processor related problem: Classic ARM processors are probably not supported. I just made a test on a DOT320 Arm CE.net pda : it did not work either... I assume that only Xscale processors are supported... It would be interesting to try MMCE on various CE.net devices to confirm this ( Arm and Xscale). Unfortunately, the original Mangameeya website no longer exists, and I have no idea who was the original programmer, so there is little chance that we can solve this problem...

Edited by Geared2003 2007-07-04 6:51 AM

hrm, all the files have normal ARM (c0 01) as cpu id. did you edit them? because it is clearly compiled for xscale, full of BX LR instructions (1E FF 2F E1 in hexeditor no need to disassemble)

(editing cpu id only helps for those that are xscale just have the identification wrong in some cases :/ )

Edited by cmonex 2007-07-04 7:17 AM

Yes, I hexedited the CPU ID: it is often a simple way to make Xscale applications "ARM compatible", but in this case, it was clearly not enough...
Cmonex, is it possible to replace these BX LR instructions with an "ARM equivalent", or is it hopeless ?


Edited by Geared2003 2007-07-04 1:12 PM

Geared2003: it makes them work only if the cpu was already xscale, just had the wrong id. (900 does seem to have that problem)

yes it is entirely possible to replace all BX Rx instructions (BX LR being one of them).

actually this thread reminded me of my little experiment i was planning but then forgot. i dug it up again.. it is a version of itaskmanager (a small app for a faster proof of concept) compiled for xscale on purpose. i've replaced all the BXxx (BX and its conditional variants) Rx, edited OS version (it was compiled for 4.2), etc. and it loads fine on the jornada now

so will have a go at this MMCE thing later. btw, the process can be automated quite well (99% or so, hmm yes, 100% with the help of a certain program), so if someone has some free time i can write up the instructions on how to do it. it can get a little tedious with a larger app but a good hexeditor can speed it up

p.s.: we're in luck only because of the strange way the compiler for winmobile/winCE makes the thumb enabled binaries. it simply uses BX Rx and nothing else. i mean, as a contrast, here is this iphone, i looked at its binaries, they do use thumb but use it for real, full of thumb instructions (POP, PUSH, LSL, etc etc). if that's not enough, then even the matching instructions are mostly 16 bit and the replacement is 32 so would need to find a place for them - possible but uh, tedious. and that's an understatement. (hardly short of rewriting the disasm)
(BX Rx is 32 bit, luckily)

Edited by cmonex 2007-07-05 6:37 AM

Geared2003: I checked the PPC version of MMCE, 2.4 Beta 2, and I didn't find any "1E FF 2F E1" code. Does it mean it can fulfill your requirements?

Cmonex: If it's only related to change some bytes in files, I think I can make a desktop application to do that.

Kimstudio: thanks for the info. Yes, I also have the PPC version, which is a generic ARM version, so it should work with minor hexediting on all ARM devices. However, I think it would be better to have a real HPC version, based on the CE.net build. The PPC version does work on HPCs, but you need a specific Aygshell version, otherwise some menus and options don't work properly.
Anyway, I am just wondering if it is worth the effort, because this project doesn't seem to interest many people anyway... ( this is strange, because I thought that a decent HPC picture and album people would be a real success...).

Actually, this is a way cool application. With the PPC generic ARM port, and the appropriate aygshell, would it be possible to get a MIPS version?

I suspect it is an apples and oranges thing, but the reason I ask, is that this is a piece of software I have been looking for. I prefer using my tablets for reading as the mobilepro screensize really cuts into the enjoyment and I don't have an ARM based tablet.

how do you mean getting a mips version? if the ppc port has mips, then ok, if not then no.






it will need to do this:

0. read PE header to determine where code section ends. maybe exclude import/export parts from the analysis too for safety's sake. but, i do *not* mean the import and export jump stubs here, that's full of BX code you need to change.
1. within real code, and nowhere else, look for this variable 4-byte hexadecimal string: 1x FF 2F E1. replace them with 0x F0 A0 E1
2. within real code, look for the same but vary the E (in the E1's) with every other possible hexadecimal char. for example 13 FF 2F 01 is BXEQ R3. you change that to 03 F0 A0 01. (that's the conditional versions of the BX Rx.)
3. this will be 99-100% correct. still handy to have a disassembler to check if you want. i *know* code has data assembled within it, but it would be unlikely to match. in the case of some conditionals, the chances are slightly (just slightly) higher though
+1: if you also check whether the 4 bytes before are 0F E0 A0 E1 (or 0F E0 A0 x1 when conditionally executed), or 2 bytes before are 9F E5, that makes it basically 100% correct in those cases when these 4/2 bytes match.

....and of course in the PE header change the cpu id, from C2 01 to C0 01, this is directly after the 2-byte "PE" signature.

anyway before you rush out to write the app, i need to check if larger apps have any other kind of thumb code, but so far i've not seen any.

thanks.





it definitely is worth the effort, looks like a great app! which "special" aygshell is needed?

Edited by cmonex 2007-07-06 2:05 AM

Hi comex, quite clear guides.

If there is no further requirements I will do that, not for hex code replacing but for PE format analyzing, good topic.

PS: admire all the asm things... I heard someone remade a Windows98 only by typing 0 and 1 on the keyboard.

win98: oh that must have been a joke, it would not work. two things: would take too many keypresses that way, also important timings would be off


well, yes thats basically the requirements. what did you want to ask about PE format analyzing?