Talk:Book reader feature set

Reader Specs in my wish list

I wish, that the text is displayed in lines parallel to the shorter edges of the display (that would be vertically in PC monitors), hopefully in two columns, that make them easier to read and to insert 1 column width graphics. I have not seen the specs of the reader. --Dagoflores 01:30, 17 March 2006 (EST)

fbreader

I just stumbled upon fbreader (http://only.mawhrin.net/fbreader/) and wanted to mention it here. Generally I think an HTML-based approach with a somehow offline capable Wiki (more on that later) is the way to go, maybe something like fbreader and/or other such "simple" (?) readers are of interest for existing content in those formats, if relevant? --Vorburger 17:26, 21 March 2006 (EST)

Font and Page Size?

When making these eBooks, what font size should they be in, and what should the page size be? --Munchinguy 14:03, 24 June 2006 (EDT)

Composition

I am sure that one of the requirements from teachers will be the ability of both teacher and student to be able to produce compositions (papers, lessons, ... yearbooks). Depending on the grade-level of the student, this should be a very simple process. The flow described is too complicated.

Also, would each school have some sort of central server to hold these compositions? There needs to be a complete solution made available at the time of launch. Perhaps Quanta has systems that OLPC SW can run and be the library server.

contributing an e-book reader-program

i might like to contribute an e-book reader-app i've programmed. i wrote it in realbasic, which runs under some flavors of linux. how would i submit a "hello world" program to see if it executes on your machine? thanks... let me know at bowerbird@aol.com

use plucker

http://plkr.org it has many features and already runs on some olpc like platforms - for example 100$ palm ffff

Scroll wheel

Regarding the desire for a scroll wheel on the laptop: I notice that many laptops that have touchpads also have a feature where you can scroll any scrollable area in the UI by sliding your finger up or down along the right edge of the touchpad. I find this much easier than click and dragging, so it would be nice if the user could do the same on the OLPC's graphics tablet input area. Alternatively, you might consider implementing a "virtual scroll ring" on the graphics tablet or touchpad input area. —Joe 11:50, 11 May 2007 (EDT)

The HP Chipmunks 68000-based workstations that were in use at Caltech in the mid-80s had scroll wheels. I thought they were the best thing since sliced bread. They were used by the text editor. Scrolling would make a text selection with a visible, rectangular outline. Shift-scrolling would adjust the selection right or left, with the unique property that you could cut or copy a rectangular piece out of the middle of a larger area of text. Michael Crawford 04:14, 5 March 2008 (EST)

Activities with significant text content

In Teaching Programming, I propose to write an introductory Python programming textbook. This could be a pure eBook, but if the XO is in book reader mode, whenever I suggest coding exercises, the student would have to flip the screen to use the keyboard for the exercise.

Alternatively, I could write an Activity that has a lot of embedded text - but there will be a significant amount of it; leaving the unit in "computer mode" during reading might drain the battery unnecessarily.

How should I approach this? Michael Crawford 04:24, 5 March 2008 (EST)

How to call the reader to dispaly a PDF from external activity?

Is there a command for the external activity to call the reader activity to display a PDF?