[OS2008, Maemo 5] kchmviewer
 

New, fremantle build for N900:
Just enable extras-devel repository and kchmviewer should be available, don't forget to disable it once it is installed.
Please address any issues or thanks to maxkiva as he is reponsible for this port.


Diablo OS2008 maemo4.1 version:
Hello,
I've been looking for a while for a good chm reader in Diablo.
Unfortunately, all I could get was some readers from easy debian (gnochm, chmsee, xchm)
So I decided to compile&build a reader for maemo, and kchmviewer seems to be the best one(fully featured and based on QT)

It wasnt easy to build it, but I finally managed to understand the process, and complete it.

You can install it by downloading and launching the deb file in your tablet :
kchmviewer 4.1-1maemo3 for OS2008
or by enabling the extras-devel repository to make kchmviewer available.
Please note that it is recommanded that you disable extras-devel repository once kchmviewer is installed.


Old screeshots of the OS2008 port (status bar is removed now):

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/9012/kchmviewer1.png
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/5552/kchmviewer2.png
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3387/kchmviewer3.png

It looks quite responsive and way faster than any other easy debian reader.

Specials thanks to : qwerty12, Maemo-QT4 and Maemo SDK+

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

fbreader can also read chm files, but the more software/options the better! :)

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Can fbreader load a 150 mb chm file ?
Does it show the TOC of a chm file ?
Does it load reasonably fast ?
I think the answer is : no, no and no.

I never liked fbreader, I use it because I have to, and I won't hesitate to use another reader when possible.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

I have to agree with karatchov on this.

I never liked FBreader, it never worked for any of my 200 meg books, and I'm not even sure why I still have it installed.

So best of luck of this!

Can't wait to give it a try. :D

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

There's also GnoCHM (GTK/Gnome).

It is true that FBReader tends to load whole files before displaying them. Not only CHMs, but 50MiB Plucker take already a LOT to load. Files that open _instantly_ on the 33 Mhz Palm m130.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Thanks Javis.

I'll look into that while awaiting a future release from karatchov.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Oh, it's not ported -- i just wanted to say that being a GTK application it may "fit" better with Diablo and require less space which may be the reason for not using Easy Debian. But never really used KCHMViewer so who knows.

EDIT: Oh, it's python. Sorry for suggesting then ;)

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

You're such a tease! *lol*

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Great! There used to be a siimilar reader for OS 2006 but it was never upgraded, nor was its source released. So this iis good news... do let us try it soon as you have something you feel comfortable releasing.

--denis

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

I needed this now so I've uploaded it to extras-devel. I don't have any Qt knowledge so it was pretty much a straight build with minor changes. As such, I won't promote it to Extras, nor do I have plans to work on it, and the packaging is there if the OP wishes to take it and produce a proper port and upload that to extras-devel.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Any chance on having newbie instructions on how to install?

Thanks for the release on this. Can't wait to try it out. :)

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Darn it all. I should have once again Googled my request before asking such a stupid question.

I swear I'm never going to learn. :D

Anyway, I found the install file here:
Kchmviewer

I just loaded up my copy of Cecil Medicine, 23rd edition and it totally can handle the size of it all!
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/4520/98557157.png

FBReader would have puked on this.

Unbelievably fantastic Qwerty!

You sir are my personal hero!

You can come over to my house and make out with my sister anytime! :D

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Thanks karatchov & qwerty

This is an excellent chm viewer..

However I have a query.. I can see that in karatchov's post ( 2nd image ) the content side alone is enabled with the TOC window hidden.. Can someone tell me how to enable/disable this.. Initially thought the 6 th icon in the lower part of the screen ( from left) does this. But it doesnt seem to work..

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Thanks karatchov & qwerty

This is an excellent chm viewer..

However I have a query.. I can see that in karatchov's post ( 2nd image ) the content side alone is enabled with the TOC window hidden.. Can someone tell me how to enable/disable this.. I thought the 6th icon from the left in the lower part of the screen does this. But it doesnt seem to work..

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

I'm having the exact, opposite problem of shin on my end.

I've got a full screen now but can no longer get back to the table of contents or even change to a different page display.

I think I've tried everything which even includes uninstalling Kchmviewer and reinstalling it back again. I also tried every option from the drop down window in the program.

Where can I delete the history file for this program?

If I can at least do that, then I can bookmark the table of contents (which I had before) and not have to worry about this problem again.

Something isn't quite right with this release, so for now, I'd really like to be able to delete the "settings" which has to be stored somewhere inside my tablet but I'm unable to find it.

Here's a picture of where I'm stuck at. As you can see, I can't move to another page, also this is the page where the home button takes me, so basically I'm locked out from doing anything else.
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/2339/89549026.png

Qwerty, I need a response from you on this one buddy.

Please post back if you can help shin and myself out on this.

Thanks ahead!

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

@shin

Go to Menu -> View and the option is there somewhere.

Somewhere in /home/user/.kchmviewer/

Try downgrading to http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...emo0_armel.deb (that is a straight build with no modifications by me whatsoever) and if it still does not work, then, sorry, but *shrug* :)

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Yeah, I hit all of the menu options already, and I couldn't get this resolved.

I'm looking at /home/user/.kchmviewer/ right now thanks to you. Hopefully I can kill something that's causing this weirdness.

Thanks chief!

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

That's why I couldn't find it... That little dot thingie in front of /home/user/.kchmviewer/ didn't show unless I manually typed it in using Emelfm2.

Thank you big dog!

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Okay, sorry for the excessive, multiple posts like this but that definitely nailed it!

Somehow I had a bad history file but after getting that nuked, I'm back to being most happy again! :D

You sir can now do whatever you want with my sister, no more limitations on just making out with her! *lol*

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Admittedly I don't read many large chm files.
I'm just getting around to installing this now and looking forward to giving it a try.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Just had a play. That is NICE!

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

The install file claims it takes over 53 MB for the installation. How much storage did it actually take for your install?

--denis

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

If it were to require twice that much memory, I still would delete whatever I could to have this on my tablet.

It's that awesome!

I don't think it took that big of a chunk out of internal memory but the only way of knowing is to give it a try yourself.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Thank you qwerty12.

I've made some changes to make it better fit into the N8x0 (added toolbar item to show/hide the TOC, another one to enable/disable finger scrolling, and menu-entry to show/hide the toolbar)

Source is available in github: kchmviewer-for-maemo

deb file will be coming soon ....

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

BTW Addison, we have something in common
Guess it !

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

You're a bold, smoldering volcanoe of virile manhood like me? :D

Hey, looking forward to seeing those changes you mentioned.

I was hoping for the same things myself but didn't want to bother anyone by asking.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

we are both med students :D

I hope I'm not mistaken

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

not just the Med students..

Everyone wanting to read some books in Chm format on the N8x0 will go for this..
Thanks a million. Waiting for the deb file though..

Edit : Also appreciate if someone can let me know how to install with the .tar content from Karatchov's github

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

*lol*

I just loaded up the 716th Chapter of Nelson's Textbook of Pediatrics, 18th Edition on all medications and it still runs at an incredible speed while browsing.

This book reader brings an absolute tear to my eye.

I can't thank Qwerty and karatchov enough for this! :D

Just as a side note though, you might need to have at least 70 megs of internal memory still available after installing this monster for best performance.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

I just uploaded a package :
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa...emo2_armel.deb

finger-scrolling is still experimental
should be soon in extra-devel

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Excellent!

Two quick questions.

Should I uninstall Qwerty's version first before running your .deb file?

I only ask because when I installed Qwerty's port, I ran into a little bit of a hot mess.

First I had to add the extra-devel package which initially was no big deal. Then a little later I received a message stating to update all of these other programs, so I went ahead and selected to update everything and now my tablet isn't the same anymore.

I'm actually thinking about reflashing because of this.

Anyway, second question. Is this your final release?

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

1: The package manager should update Qwerty's version without much hassle, but I'm not sure about it, not sure even if it will download & install QT libraries correctly when loading the deb file (if they are not already installed)

2: this is not a final release
-----
And, I forgot to say Thanks to Qwerty, without his help, this would probably have taken much longer

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

I like the extra shortcuts in the toolbar! :D

Any chance you could add a feature to remove the top tab bar/bars while in full screen mode?

Also, I'm not getting the hide scroll/thumb scrolling. I think it's because I'm missing one dependency.

I believe I manually installed up to qt-webkit. I thought there was one more thing to install (I did 3 of them but I think 4 was needed) after this but it no longer gave me any dependency errors.

Thanks.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Thanks
I'll try to create an option to hide the tabs bar in fullscreen (or maybe to completely disable tabs).
I'm also thinking about a better use of the key pad (left-right to scroll by 1 page)

Please don't hesitate to report any bugs or suggestions.

Actually this build seems to constantly fail to load some files.(that were loading correctly previously)
I'm not sure if this is caused by the program's history file or the compiler optimizations or because I cloned my flash memory to memory card along with a swap partition.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

So far I'm not having any issues but the first thing I did was to remove the option on saving the history after exit.

There's no possible chance that you compiled this with java support, right?

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

What do you mean ?

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Maemo doesn't really have Java support...

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

Under settings there's an option to enable java/javascript, that's why I was asking about it earlier.

And I spoke to soon...

Harrison's Principles 17th ed., I'm getting numerous segmentation faults and even a spontaneous reboot.

Poopers! :D

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

thanks karatchov for kchmviewer in diablo

actually i did not realised that there is a kchmviewer in diablo before i installed it in easy debian.

now i run kchmviewer in both maemo and easy debian. what i noticed is that kchmviewer is more responsive and quick in easy debian.

the good thing about running it in diablo is that the keyboard integration is there automatically.

Re: kchmviewer for Mameo
 

I tried installing kchmviewer on my easy-debian image (debian-squeeze version) but it doesn't work... some components can't be located. What additional repositories did you configured in to enable the install of kchmviewer?

--denis