greg asked for examples...
so i've got myself a little program here
which displays the images in a scan-set,
with an edit-field alongside for the text...
you can thumb through the scan-pages by
clicking buttons or using the cursor-keys...
you can view the text for just one page
or load in the text for the entire book...
(it will auto-scroll to the appropriate point
as you summon up each new page-scan.)
for this demo version, which i will upload
as soon as greg gives me the information,
i used jon noring's "my antonia" example...
the app looks in its folder (or "directory",
for you p.c. people) for the image-file and
displays it if it finds it there. if it doesn't,
it downloads it from the openreader site,
and then displays it. very fast on fat pipes,
maybe not so fast if you're still on dial-up...
if you want, you can download all the images
in one fell swoop while you're out to lunch or
taking a nap. (or overnight with a modem.)
once the file for a page is downloaded once,
it's saved on your machine for your later use...
(or, if you want, you can download the images
in the single .zip file on the openreader site,
and then unzip them yourself into the folder
where you have placed this demo-program.)
this demo -- which i dubbed "banana-cream" --
is a cut-down version of my proofing program
which you might remember is called "pudding".
i threw in some pudding-style features for y'all,
for the fun of it. the app finds and highlights
quoted passages. some people try to tell you
that you should use "curly" quotes in your text.
what a pain in the rear! have the viewer-app
do that conversion automatically for the reader
-- if the reader requests it. that's a lot easier.
after all, converting quotes isn't rocket-science;
most word-processors can do the job nowadays.
(except far too many of them make mistakes!
i feel my routine does a better job. but i have
included it in this program because if it _does_
make any mistakes, i expect that you'll tell me,
and then i can improve the logic as necessary.)
i also threw in a text-to-speech thing, because
i believe it's a neat way for you to do proofing.
(but sorry, that feature won't work on linux.)
there is also a powerful "find" capability, so you
can view all the occurrences of the search term,
and then click to the specific one you want to,
or step through them one-by-one to see 'em all...
adjustable text-size. full-screen no-menu feature.
history capability to track back through your trail.
and header-finding to create a table-of-contents
that it installs in a menu on the menu-bar for you,
plus the ability to jump through the chapter-titles.
let me think, i know i put something else in there.
oh yeah, a simple-but-powerful _linking_ capability,
so the table of contents, for instance, becomes live.
this demo-app is also a cut-down version of "give",
my viewer-program, where this linking capability is
far more full-featured. but i thought you might like
a taste, a taste of banana-cream pie...
i don't feel like releasing "pudding" quite yet, but
i _will_ take feature-requests for "banana-cream".
if y'all can put together a list of specifications that
impresses me, i'll be happy to implement them and
we can go from there. on the other hand, if you're
not interested, then i'll spend my time elsewhere...
-bowerbird
