Ands PDF 2/23/2009

[Another World]

Ands PDF 2/23/2009
Update

Ands PDF is a viewer for the NDS. Please see the change log and browser the homepage blog (linked below) for more information.

a document preview window that lets you pan and zoom
the ability to reopen another file
faster rendering, almost any PDF should render correctly now, save those with large images.

Download

Source

Homepage Blog

Discuss

 

[Vague Rant]

Not much success for me, the only one that's worked was a two-page assignment I got from college; everything else, even those without images, has failed. Great development, though, and I'll be keeping an eye on this.

 

[jphriendly]

I'm having the same issues atm. So far only a couple thing I have tested actually work. Hoping for great thing from this in the future though as it looks very promising.

 

[Legobot]

Stick with comic book DS and change your .pdf files to .jpg until this gets better

 

[Shadow#1]

no use a psp with bookr for pdf reading kthx

 

[DanTheManMS]

Not much success for me, the only one that's worked was a two-page assignment I got from college; everything else, even those without images, has failed. Great development, though, and I'll be keeping an eye on this.

QUOTE(jphriendly @ Feb 23 2009, 11:57 PM) I'm having the same issues atm. So far only a couple thing I have tested actually work. Hoping for great thing from this in the future though as it looks very promising.

Why not submit your PDF files to him so he can take a look at why they aren't rendering? He said himself that he has run out of test PDF files that break, and he seems very adamant about getting compatibility as high as possible, so your submissions could be the very reason the program improves rather than just "looking promising."

 

[albinofrenchy]

In fact, I check GBATemp for this kind of thing. Mind messaging me with those files?

 

[jphriendly]

In fact, I check GBATemp for this kind of thing. Mind messaging me with those files?

I'll shoot you a pm shortly describing my issues and a few of the files I have been testing with.

 

[Another World]

@albinofrenchy: thanks for providing the screen cap =)

-another world

 

[Vague Rant]

Why not submit your PDF files to him so he can take a look at why they aren't rendering? He said himself that he has run out of test PDF files that break, and he seems very adamant about getting compatibility as high as possible, so your submissions could be the very reason the program improves rather than just "looking promising."

I did try to comment on the blog, but for some reason the captchas refused to load on any browser I tried.

frenchy, I'll shoot you a PM once I've woken up.

 

[albinofrenchy]

I've taken a look at the PDF files you guys have sent me, and its all memory issues, which makes them sticky problems. For some, it was the images on the next page crashing it, and for one it was just that the kind of header part for the PDF was too long to keep in memory.

I hope to be able to muck around with the PDF rendering library to make it not render images that would be too large for it, and also optimize its use of memory when reading the header. I have another file now that has this same header non-sense problem, and so I think I have enough examples to eliminate this problem entirely.

Thank you guys alot for the examples! Hopefully in the next release they'll render

 

[Narin]

I've taken a look at the PDF files you guys have sent me, and its all memory issues, which makes them sticky problems. For some, it was the images on the next page crashing it, and for one it was just that the kind of header part for the PDF was too long to keep in memory.

I hope to be able to muck around with the PDF rendering library to make it not render images that would be too large for it, and also optimize its use of memory when reading the header. I have another file now that has this same header non-sense problem, and so I think I have enough examples to eliminate this problem entirely.

Thank you guys alot for the examples! Hopefully in the next release they'll render

Ever thought of supporting Slot 2 cards? That would give you 16-32 extra Megs of RAM at your disposal.

 

[albinofrenchy]

@Narin: I have, and probably eventually will, but the real factor that keeps me from doing that is most people don't have this hardware available; and with the DSi coming out, I doubt this is going to change. I really want to maximize the memory consumption for the wider audience, and that means testing and dealing with only the 4 mb's.

Although; if it easy (does anyone have any tutorials to using that extended ram?) to have malloc utilize that extra ram, I'd certainly try it. I would have to have someone else test the results of this out for me; since I don't have one of the slot 2 devices.

 

[outcast22]

Anyone else having a problem scaling to screen? I tried dragging from left to right with the stylus to scale to screen size, but all it does is drag the picture around on both screens. Any ideas how to scale to one screen?

 

[jphriendly]

Thank you guys alot for the examples! Hopefully in the next release they'll render

No problem. Glad to try and help out any way I can.

 

[albinofrenchy]

@outcast22: Are you you bringing up the mini screen first?

 

[Empir]

If noone minds, I'd like to report my expirience so far with this program:

I downloaded it, and put all the files in my flash cart (if it matters, it's an EZ Flash Vi). When running the rom for the program, I get a green on the touch screen/red on the upper screen web browser. I tried opening the pdf file (weighing about 2 MB and 300 pages), and got all sort of weird errors. I removed the image and some hyperlinks the pdf had, but I still got an error.

Researching a little bit I came across the DLDI thingie, and thought that maybe that was it. Patched the ROM succesfully (with the patch meant for EZ Flash V, which apparently has some special thing) and tried again: errors once again. Searching a little bit more, i realized that the pdf was maybe too big. I cut a lot of the pages and reduced it to 20 pages and 200KB. Another attempt: succes this time!

Now I have one more problem:
I can't get the pdf to zoom in/out properly. The whole drawing a line thing doesn't work for me (or maybe it just doesn't work, I don't know; or maybe I'm just dumb

); I end up staring at a blank space.

I tried both a patched an unpatched file, and both work the same apparently; so not sure if the DLDI is needed.

I hope this helps the program creator/some other lost soul. To the author, thank you very much for this program. A question though: How big pdf files do you think it'll be able to run on the DS's standard RAM once it is optimized enough?

PS: Maybe you should write a quick tutorial. I was lost all the time and had to get through by trial and error. If you want, I can try writing a simple one.

 

[stretch]

Empir, I've managed to open a PDF which was almost 1MB (128 pages with a few images), and it worked fine for me. I probably had like... two or three images so I really can't tell you unless I try out some more tests.

 

[Vague Rant]

Researching a little bit I came across the DLDI thingie, and thought that maybe that was it.

...

I tried both a patched an unpatched file, and both work the same apparently; so not sure if the DLDI is needed.

Modern flash cards DLDI patch things automatically when you run them. Also, using the EZ-Flash V DLDI patch won't work on the EZ-Flash Vi, except possibly if you're using a =

 

[albinofrenchy]

@Empir: Thanks for the report on your progress!

File size is rarely the primary issue, what it comes down to is whats in the PDF. Right now, images are the main choking point. Other than that, I've had files with hundreds of pages load and run property.

I do think that one of the thinks I need to fix for one of the next few releases is error handling. Given that it gave you so much trouble, I'll probably get on that sooner rather than later.

Try the new version though off the website. The zooming function is the #1 fix I put in it, and it should be a lot more intuitive for you now.