Beta 4 Feedback Thread

[mikelove]

TroiOi - might be an out-of-memory issue; when the reader opens a non-UTF-16 file it actually creates a temporary file in memory containing the UTF-16-converted version of the file and then opens that. Does it help matters any if you clear out some more space in internal memory?

TroiOi/sfrrr/ipsi - the Tuttle and TCM dictionaries are coming later on, we actually haven't even received the source data for one of them yet. They'll probably only be available with the finished release, though worst-case they may not even come out until a month or two after that.

bodybag77 - on #1, can you give me some examples of characters that cause this problem? Or does it not seem to be tied to any particular characters (i.e. it'll sometimes happen and sometimes won't happen with any given character)? #2 might be a text width calculation issue, particularly with some of the anti-aliasing modes that can sometimes be mixed up by a couple of pixels. For #3, yes, Adso should be available too eventually. Not sure about #4, we haven't seen either of these problems here but we'll see if we can figure out a way to reproduce them.

 

[TroiOi]

TroiOi - might be an out-of-memory issue; when the reader opens a non-UTF-16 file it actually creates a temporary file in memory containing the UTF-16-converted version of the file and then opens that. Does it help matters any if you clear out some more space in internal memory?

No it's not a memory issue cause my Treo 650 has 13MB cache and 7.8M internal memory. Therefore it should not be.

Follow your instruction, I've converted from GB to UTF-8 and it works fine. After that, I try to convert to Unicode windows (UTF 16 BE) then it runs super fast (Wah). So I conclude that the GB encode does not work cause it does show nothing for internal palm doc and crash for external text file.

However, the fact that the reader works superfast on utf 16be for file more than 2MB makes me happy. I'm reading wuxia novel now.

Thanks Mike.

 

[ipsi]

Huh. That does explain why it takes so long to load large files. I'll have to convert everything to UTF-16 by the looks of it. Oh well. Why do you convert them to UTF-16BE, as opposed to reading and displaying them? Do your font files only contain UTF-16 codes, or something? I'm assuming you have a good, non-lazy, reason for it .

You may also want to put a pop-up message when people try and open files over a certain size in a non-UTF16 format to let them know that it will be much quicker if they converted the file. Not sure though. I'd have never thought of that if I hadn't read it here.

TroiOi: Looks like they haven't implemented GB2312? Though I think Mike would have said if that was the case. Do you have a file gb.pdb either on your SD card (with the rest of the Pleco 2.0 files), or in internal memory? That'd be the only other thing I can think of.

 

[ipsi]

I'm a little confused, as there seems to be some issues with the encodings used in the Document Reader.

If I try to open a PalmDoc file (UTF16BE) from Internal Memory, it doesn't work. Well, it does, but not properly - it will some some characters correctly, but not others. I'm not sure why, but it produces something slightly funny which is not what it should be. Opening a UTF8 files works just fine.

Opening the same UTF16BE file as a text file produces the correct text. Might be related to the compression, perhaps? Seems as good an explanation as any... No, my bad. The only reason it shows anything at all is *because* it's compressed. I've got no idea what's going on here. I'll just stick to UTF8 for now.

Which leads me to my next question: TroiOi, did you compress the file you were trying to open? If not, that sounds like it could be the cause... If you did, then I just have no idea what's going on.

The other alternative to the problem is that it could just be because I'm running MakeDocW through WINE, which may be causing problems.

 

[TroiOi]

Which leads me to my next question: TroiOi, did you compress the file you were trying to open? If not, that sounds like it could be the cause... If you did, then I just have no idea what's going on.

The other alternative to the problem is that it could just be because I'm running MakeDocW through WINE, which may be causing problems.

Nope, your docs work fine . I just mention about the text file in GB2312 encode. And I try to create PalmDoc (normal, not compress) and put it to internal RAM but it does show nothing. Anyway, UTF16 run very fast so I'm not very concern with that problem. Scrolling is more trouble for me right now since the arrows are too small to push

 

[sfrrr]

OK. I've spent all too many hours on this, so over to you. I can't get my dictionaries to show up. PDb4 has accepted the keyfile--it told me so, but it also told me I hadn't installed any dictionaries. I'm going basck in right after I post this to see if I can find a leftover fragment of PD 1 (I didn't install the beta on this machine (iPAQ 211 with 8 gig SDHC card and 16 gig CF Card). I've forgotten what I did the last time this happened (once with PD 1), but anything I thought I remembered did no good at all.

But I can tell you this--the interface looks a bit cheesy on my 4-inch VGA screen. The icons are too small (some of them waay too small) and they are separated by wide spaces. (On my iPAQ in portrait mode, there's probably room for three to five more icons.) Since you're using the old Palm interface, it looks, IMO, even cheesier.

Sandra

 

[ldolse]

@ ipsi - Windows Mobile is all UTF-16 internally, so I'm guessing using that encoding is path of least resistance.

@ sfrr - The zip file download has many subfolders - if you just unzip the files as is then the executable won't find the files. All files need to go in \Storage Card\Program Files\Pleco\, no subdirectories. The executable and PlecoHWR.dll goes in \Program Files\Pleco\ in internal memory.
Also, did you make sure that Pleco 1 was shut down before launching Beta 4? I find that if V1 is running that I don't get dictionaries when launching V2 beta 3. However I can't reproduce this right now - Beta 4 won't launch for me if V1 is started.

 

[sfrrr]

ldolse --thanks, but that's already what I did. I had installed PD 1 on the iPAQ, and I removed all of it before installing PD 2b4. (I removed every single PD file from other folders too, including Windows. Even cleaned out the registry.) I had never put a PD2 beta on this machine. And I did unzip and copy all of the files out of all the folders and put them all loose into SD\Program Files\Pleco. I always have trouble getting PD going--as a hardware and software reviewer, I have an unbelievable collection of programs on any computing device within my grasp.

Thanks for the help. I'm about to remove PD 2b4 from this iPAQ, clean the directories and registry again, and then reinstall.

Mike--you ARE going to include a full-fledged installer into the distribution package, aren't you??? As you know, I don't expect an installer in a beta, and I'm used to problems and incompatibilities in programs--but the way you phrased your comment about the validator, I started to get nervous.

Sandra

 

[bodybag77]

bodybag77 - on #1, can you give me some examples of characters that cause this problem? Or does it not seem to be tied to any particular characters (i.e. it'll sometimes happen and sometimes won't happen with any given character)? #2 might be a text width calculation issue, particularly with some of the anti-aliasing modes that can sometimes be mixed up by a couple of pixels. For #3, yes, Adso should be available too eventually. Not sure about #4, we haven't seen either of these problems here but we'll see if we can figure out a way to reproduce them.

Hi!
1) I've tried to find a connection between the crashes and which characters trigger the crash, but as far as I can figure out they seem pretty random, though after a preferences reset they seem less frequent, but still present.

2) Whethever is an issue or not, i'm starting to get accustomed to the soft spot I have to tap on, so now I can tap easily all the characters.

3) tks

4) I'll try to give an in-depth look at the bookmark system and let you know more detail (maybe these problems are due to the fact my HTC Touch is keyboardless)

Cheers
Ugo

 

[sfrrr]

OK, PD 2b4 is up and running on my iPAQ 211. The only thing I did differently than last time is that this time used my SD Card instead of my CF card. Is that weird or are CF Cards slower--or something?

 

[sfrrr]

Oops. Although I see them in the SD Card\Program Files\Pleco\, I can't get the Unihan and ctbiz dictionaries to show up on the dictionary list. I've tried all my old tweaks and nudges, but nothing worked. I double and triple checked that these are the PD 2b4 files, not from any other beta or from PD 1, and they are--they come out of the beta 4 zip. I'm now going to check for .ini files or registry keys that need to list the dictionaries before they show up. If that doesn't work, I'm baffled.

Also, for those who made extra dictionaries (radical, etc), do they work with this beta version?

Thanks,
Sandra

 

[ipsi]

The extra dictionaries created with MakePlecoDict won't work with this (or any other) beta, as there's been some large changes to the proprietary database structure. You'll have to wait until they release a new converter for it, I'm afraid.

 

[sfrrr]

Ipsi--thanks. If I can get PD 2b4 to accept the unihan dictionary, I'll be content to wait for other goodies.

Sandra

 

[The Duelist]

Flashcard DB Format

Just Wondering If This Is The 'Final' Format For The Flashcard DB?
(Or Are There Still Changes To Be Made?)

The Duelist

 

[ipsi]

The Unihan bit isn't a dictionary - it's part of the character info screen.

I think it's mostly final, but changes could still be made, and Mike has said the dictionary IDs will change, so if your cards are linked to a dictionary then they'll become unusable, I imagine.

 

[sfrrr]

Ipsi--thanks again. I just figured out what I was thinking about. It is the Adso dictionary, and, as soon as I remembered that, I remembered that Mike said Adso doesn't work with the betas. I really miss it.

Sandra

 

[mikelove]

TroiOi - are you sure you installed the GB encoding conversion file? (should be in one of the install archive folders) If so then yes, it does sound like something's screwed up with GB conversion - we'll do some tests with large GB files here and see what we can find. We do need to do something about those scroll arrows, we made them a little bigger in this version but the probably should be even bigger (or at least take up the full height of the text field, no reason not to do that)

ipsi - nope, only lazy reasons; we had enough trouble getting the reader to scroll / jump around correctly with UTF-16 that we decided in the interests of not delaying 2.0 by another couple of weeks that we'd leave well enough alone and not add support for directly reading non-UTF-16 files until a later release. Good idea about the popup message.

UTF-16 files can't be converted to PalmDoc - PalmDoc only handles 8-bit character sets. We should probably disable the UTF-16 options in the encoding menu when PalmDoc is selected... Wouldn't matter if you did, though, since PalmDoc files also get converted to non-PalmDoc format before you open them. Basically the only way to have a fast document accessible from a Palm's internal memory is with PlecoDoc.

sfrrr - the icons are the same size that they were in 1.0; in fact, aside from the more even button spacing and the lack of a gray background the interface should be pretty much identical. Sounds like everything's installed correctly now, except possibly for ctbiz - is that listed in the Ordering screen anywhere? And yes, we are most certainly going to have an installer for the finished version, in fact it may even be in the next beta since it's a custom-developed one and needs some testing; there are way too many people running out of internal memory installing Pleco thanks to ActiveSync's brazenly stupid practice of storing .cab files in internal memory even if they're ultimately going on a memory card, so we're cutting it out of the equation and writing our own program that directly copies files to the storage card.

The Duelist - the format is prettty much final, but we may still make one or two tweaks (cutting out an unused column or two or cleaning up the format for storing profile settings) since thanks to the entry ID problem ipsi mentioned we're still not recommending that people move their flashcards over.

 

[ipsi]

Oh joy. That makes sense then. Yeah, I'll stick with UTF-8 for now then. It works fine for the smaller files I use .

I'd forgotten that you didn't read the entire file at once. I guess that could make things tricky then...

PlecoDoc, hey? So, when's the converter for that coming out then? Could you release a basic one to encode text files, with no formatting or anything, just so we can have fast files in a list? I'd rather store them on the SD card, but typing out file names gets very old very quickly. And PlecoDoc files are listed regardless of whether they're on the card or in internal memory.

I agree that you should probably remove the UTF-16 option. That, or have another pop-up saying it's not supported by the PalmDoc format.

 

[TroiOi]

TroiOi - are you sure you installed the GB encoding conversion file? (should be in one of the install archive folders) If so then yes, it does sound like something's screwed up with GB conversion - we'll do some tests with large GB files here and see what we can find. We do need to do something about those scroll arrows, we made them a little bigger in this version but the probably should be even bigger (or at least take up the full height of the text field, no reason not to do that)

Oh, yeah, it's cool.

About the GB conversion, did you mean this file: gb.pdb ?? Yes. I put all files in encoding directory to /Palm/Launcher.

BTW, bookmark not works for me. The document I read is in text file with format utf-16 be. I try to click on the ribbon to create new bookmark, enter new name. After that, click on percentage and the bookmark show nothing. Weird.

 

[ipsi]

Just to check, they're in /PALM/Launcher, and not /PALM/Launcher/encodings, right?

Also, bookmarks work for me in the sample story "啊Q", but not in the PDB files. Not sure about text files.