[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] tomosono:
Breathes new life into my old PPC

Details:

Freda Version: 2.0.106 for WM2003

Where installed: \SD Card\Programs\Freda

Device: iPaq 2200 with WM2003

.NetCF version installed: 3.5, installed on device, not SD

Impressions:

First, let me say that I am very impressed with Freda, and generally like the interface on my old PPC. I have been looking for a way to read epub books on my PPC, and am extremely happy to have recently discovered Freda. The only other epub reader I have found is ZuluReader at http://www.zuluexpress.com/DownloadsMobile.aspx, which I did not care for. My favorite eReader, uBook (http://gowerpoint.com/uBook_main.html), is capable of reading the individual files within an epub, which is actually a special zip file. This is, however, an extremely awkward workaround, and promises of true epub-handling have not yet happened.

Of course, I can always convert files with the excellent Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/), but would like to just read without worrying about conversions.

Freda definitely breathes new life into my old PPC, and can postpone the day when I feel compelled to buy and "Ebook reader". Although I have not yet done this, I am fairly certain I will be making a donation after I play with it further.

Issues:

in a brief trial of opening a few ebooks (some each of epub, html & txt), there was one html book that would just hang without ever opening ("Auel, Jean M - Earth's Children 04 - The Plains of Passage 1.0.html"). I even left it overnight, and it still never opened! Log file attached below...

On my WM2003 device, which does not support screen-rotation, attempting (or accidentally doing) this only crashes Freda. Preferred behavior would be to either do nothing, or show a dialog that this feature is unavailable on this device, and reverting to normal screen rotation without crashing.

On my WM2003 device, attempting to enable the option to "Show clock and battery", it causes Freda to crash. It took me a while to figure out what was causing this! Although not critical, I would like this to work, but if not, then at least not to crash Freda.

Suggestions - many have been proposed already in the forums, esp. #527:

I would like to see options to more easily switch presets (day, night, etc.) on the shortcuts screen without all the extra clicks.

The option to add a single file, as opposed to adding a folder, has no option to browse for the file, so is very awkward, as you must manually type in the full (and exactly correct) path and filename for the file. Please try to add a browse button to the single file dialog.

Freda needs better help on dictionary settings. I was able to figure it out after reading through the forums, and some trial and error. Also, the "recommended" dictionary is NOT free AFAIK, which seems counterintuitive to use with a free eReader. I got it to work with an old version of BDicty which was already installed on my SD card with this: "\SD Card\Programs\BDicty\BDicty.exe". After pulling up the dictionary, however, you need to paste the word (which is already in the clipboard) into the BDicty search field. If there is a free version of SlovoEd (esp. for PPC), could you please post a link, as I could not find it on their website.

I second the vote for a different auto-scroll function, as proposed in posts #527 and #582.

I second the vote for an option to open directly to the bookshelf screen, as per comment #667.

There have been various comments about making the WM6 version appear more like the WinP7 version, but I am mostly happy with it like it is, except for the issues and suggestions above.

Log:

2/22/11 8:11 AM: Read from registry: program file is in folder \SD Card\Programs\Freda
2/22/11 8:11 AM: Exception reading SlovoEd dictionary location from registry:
NullReferenceException
at Freda2.Program.LoadRegistryInfo()
at Freda2.Program.Main(String[] args)

2/22/11 8:11 AM: Assuming SlovoEd is at \Program Files\SlovoEd 7\SlovoEd.exe
2/22/11 8:11 AM: SlovoEd program not found at \Program Files\SlovoEd 7\SlovoEd.exe
2/22/11 8:11 AM: SlovoEd dictionary will not be available for lookup
2/22/11 8:11 AM: Initialisation completed. Version=2.0 104 2003SE
2/22/11 8:11 AM: LoadBook: bookId='15122dcd-a738-40c4-b1b2-3eae06690329'
2/22/11 8:11 AM: Exception in LoadChapterFromDatFile; clearing words.
2/22/11 8:14 AM: LoadBook: bookId='file://\SD Card\My Documents\eBooks\Auel, Jean M - Earth's Children 04 - The Plains of Passage 1.0.html'
2/22/11 8:14 AM: Unexpected exception loading chapter data from EPUB data: file://\SD Card\My Documents\eBooks\Auel, Jean M - Earth's Children 04 - The Plains of Passage 1.0.html
OutOfMemoryException
at System.String.GetStringForStringBuilder(String value, Int32 startIndex, Int32 length, Int32 capacity)
at System.String.GetStringForStringBuilder(String value, Int32 capacity)
at System.Text.StringBuilder.GetNewString(String currentString, Int32 requiredLength)
at System.Text.StringBuilder.Append(String value)
at Freda2.Word.set_s(String value)
at Freda2.FredaBook.LoadHtmlChapterFromByteArray(Int32 chapterNumber, Byte[] htmlData, String bookId, Boolean bookIsEpubArchive)
at Freda2.FredaBook.LoadHtmlChapter(Int32 ch, String bookId)
at Freda2.FredaBook.LoadChapter(Int32 ch)
at Freda2.FredaBook.DoSomeWorkOnChapter(Int32 ch)
at Freda2.FredaBook.DoSomeWork()
at Freda2.FredaBook.DoWork()

2/22/11 8:14 AM: LoadHtmlChapter(0, file://\SD Card\My Documents\eBooks\Auel, Jean M - Earth's Children 04 - The Plains of Passage 1.0.html) failed to open file '/SD Card/My Documents/eBooks/Auel, Jean M - Earth's Children 04 - The Plains of Passage 1.0.html' for read. Exception:
OutOfMemoryException
at System.String.GetStringForStringBuilder(String value, Int32 startIndex, Int32 length, Int32 capacity)
at System.String.GetStringForStringBuilder(String value, Int32 capacity)
at System.Text.StringBuilder.GetNewString(String currentString, Int32 requiredLength)
at System.Text.StringBuilder.Append(String value)
at Freda2.Word.set_s(String value)
at Freda2.FredaBook.LoadHtmlChapterFromByteArray(Int32 chapterNumber, Byte[] htmlData, String bookId, Boolean bookIsEpubArchive)
at Freda2.FredaBook.LoadHtmlChapter(Int32 ch, String bookId)
at Freda2.FredaBook.LoadChapter(Int32 ch)
at Freda2.FredaBook.DoSomeWorkOnChapter(Int32 ch)
at Freda2.FredaBook.DoSomeWork()
at Freda2.FredaBook.DoWork()

2/22/11 8:14 AM: LoadHtmlChapter(0, file://\SD Card\My Documents\eBooks\Auel, Jean M - Earth's Children 04 - The Plains of Passage 1.0.html) failed to open file '/SD Card/My Documents/eBooks/Auel, Jean M - Earth's Children 04 - The Plains of Passage 1.0.html' for read. Exception:
InterruptRequestedException
at Freda2.FredaBook.LoadHtmlChapterFromByteArray(Int32 chapterNumber, Byte[] htmlData, String bookId, Boolean bookIsEpubArchive)
at Freda2.FredaBook.LoadHtmlChapter(Int32 ch, String bookId)
at Freda2.FredaBook.LoadChapter(Int32 ch)
at Freda2.FredaBook.DoSomeWorkOnChapter(Int32 ch)
at Freda2.FredaBook.DoSomeWork()
at Freda2.FredaBook.DoWork()

2/22/11 8:14 AM: LoadBook: bookId='15122dcd-a738-40c4-b1b2-3eae06690329'
2/22/11 8:14 AM: Exit() called; application will halt.
2/22/11 8:14 AM: Exception in LoadChapterFromDatFile; clearing words.

Thanks for all the hard work that you have obviously put into this. Even if it never gets any better, I really like it.