Homebrew eBook Reader?

[Anne Noise]

Any recommendations for an eBook reader on the DSi (XL)? I've been using my phone, but everything I've found rapes my battery life. I don't need many features, and barebones interface is fine.

 

[twiztidsinz]

Any recommendations for an eBook reader on the DSi (XL)? I've been using my phone, but everything I've found rapes my battery life. I don't need many features, and barebones interface is fine.

It's more likely that it's the flashcart itself 'raping your battery life'... Misread.

Tired and have a headache.


That said.. TextDS 2 does plaintext files really well.

DSLibris reads a few ebook formats (XHTML and ePub), if you're going to use it... I'd highly recommend getting Calibre to convert your books to ePub since DSLibris' handling of XHTML is picky to say the least.

And there's DSReader which is decent, but has some major flaws/bugs IMO. If you use this, DO NOT use spaces in filenames and keep them under 8 characters long.

 

[Anne Noise]

It's more likely that it's the flashcart itself 'raping your battery life'...

It's actually my phone that can't hold up - my XL lasts 30-ish hours on a charge with the sound off and brightness down.

QUOTE(twiztidsinz @ May 29 2010, 03:51 AM) That said.. TextDS 2 does plaintext files really well.

DSLibris reads a few ebook formats (XHTML and ePub), if you're going to use it... I'd highly recommend getting Calibre to convert your books to ePub since DSLibris' handling of XHTML is picky to say the least.

And there's DSReader which is decent, but has some major flaws/bugs IMO. If you use this, DO NOT use spaces in filenames and keep them under 8 characters long.

Looking into both Reader and Libris, thanks!

 

[DanTheManMS]

I've read several full novels with DSReader, using the fine-grained anti-aliasing controls to make it more readable. White text on black background also helps.

 

[jurassicplayer]

o.0 lol what about TextDS 2...it might only be able to read plaintext, but it is fairly good at doing it (no mean bugs yet to speak of, and there is still currently support for it if you have ideas or problems).

 

[Anne Noise]

Libris didn't meet my needs, and I'm going for DSReader right now.

My problem with TextDS is that many of my books are in PDF and EPUB formats - if the reader is awesome, I guess I can look into conversions, if DSReader isn't what I need.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Oh, well DSReader only supports plain *.txt files too. There's only one program for the DS that can read PDF files directly, but it's not really that great as an ebook reader.

 

[Anne Noise]

All very interesting. I'm basically killing time until an Android tablet I'm interested in drops, hopefully sometime before the holiday season - eBook readers I've seen so far, like the Nook and Kindle, both kind of suck, from my limited knowledge.

My XL is with me everywhere anyway, so I'd love to find a solution.

 

[owamugen]

There's also that other called Ands PDF but I couldn't get that to work >.>

 

[jurassicplayer]

There's also that other called Ands PDF but I couldn't get that to work >.>

That was the one that DanTheManMS was talking about (I tried using it once for sheet music...and it failed at loading quick enough).

 

[Anne Noise]

DSReader didn't like the file I had, and TextDS is currently trying to load it, also. I'm going to let it sit for a bit, but unless it loads a little faster, I don't really envision using this as much - I need something for a commute, so quick-ish on-and-off would be super.

Yeah, it looks like none of the three options could handle the trial book I had, whereas my computer, phone and a friend's phone all read it fine. It might be too big for any of them to handle? Which is too bad. Guess I'm waiting for new hardware, again.

 

[jurassicplayer]

Well, if its in plain text as it is, you could try moonshell2 which might be suitable for what you have (and I think it looks just smexy)

 

[Anne Noise]

Trying that right now. I had initially tried this, but then saw responses and cancelled the parsing process. We'll see!

ETA: Nah, Moonshell just hung while reading the .txt file, just like TextDS. I think the problem might be the size of the file - it's 227 pages long. I uploaded the .txt file (which is allowed by the CC of the document itself) so hopefully someone else could take a look, let me know if they have better luck with different settings or something? Cory_Doctorow_-_For_the_Win.txt - 0.90MB

Any further advice is much appreciated.

 

[twiztidsinz]

Trying that right now. I had initially tried this, but then saw responses and cancelled the parsing process. We'll see!

ETA: Nah, Moonshell just hung while reading the .txt file, just like TextDS. I think the problem might be the size of the file - it's 227 pages long. I uploaded the .txt file (which is allowed by the CC of the document itself) so hopefully someone else could take a look, let me know if they have better luck with different settings or something? Cory_Doctorow_-_For_the_Win.txt - 0.90MB

Any further advice is much appreciated.

The ebooks I have weigh in at 500~550kb for plain text, 150~200kb for ePub (which is compressed).
The physical books are in the 300 page range, not sure about as text.
And I haven't had a problem reading them with any app (other than file name length/space bugs in DSReader)...


I tried your file, and it loads in Moonshell just fine.
It takes a while to fully load the file, but you can start reading almost instantly.

Which version of Moonshell did you try? And where did you get it?
You should be using Moonshell 2.10.
The only thing I don't like is, after the initial beta phase, Moonlight took out the option to choose how many lines to scroll with the left/right arrows. It scrolls the default one page so you have to press the button twice to 'turn the page'.

 

[Anne Noise]

You should be using Moonshell 2.10.

That URL's download link doesn't seem to want to load right now, may be the site or me - I'll try again later. I'm using AKAIO as my main OS, with Moonshell 2.09, which I got from here somewhere when I first got my XL. I'll find an update.

And if it helps, I'm using an Acekard 2i.

ETA: Download worked, tinkering now.

ETA2: Updating Moonshell worked quite well. This'll do perfectly, thanks so much for the advice, twiztid.

 

[Stormwave]

Just to let you know, I looked into why the file wasn't loading on my TextDS2 program, and I figured it out. It's due to the "[[" parts of the file (TextDS2 uses a command type system to set chapters which starts with "["). The program was expecting a command after the square bracket and was reading the rest of the file (aimlessly) trying to find it. I've fixed the problem now anyway, so the next version of TextDS2 (when I release it, maybe later today) will work (I've tried the file and can confirm it).

 

[ProtoKun7]

If you're using Moonshell, try it with the narrow spacing, 12px size text, bold Clear type and use both screens. Works rather nicely.

 

[Anne Noise]

Just to let you know, I looked into why the file wasn't loading on my TextDS2 program, and I figured it out. It's due to the "[[" parts of the file (TextDS2 uses a command type system to set chapters which starts with "["). The program was expecting a command after the square bracket and was reading the rest of the file (aimlessly) trying to find it. I've fixed the problem now anyway, so the next version of TextDS2 (when I release it, maybe later today) will work (I've tried the file and can confirm it).

Thanks, I'll give the new version a whirl when it drops.