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Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

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Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#121

Post by robotiamsowhat »

saurabhjha wrote: post #87

I like to print them out. Reading from any type of screen hurts my eyes. Has anyone got experience reading papers in Kindle. How does it feel like?

They feel like paper to my eyes. Sometimes like a xerocopy. See above for a bit longer reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13591030

I had some doubts myself before buying my first e-ink based device. It helped a lot to watch movies on y-t where guys were test driving them.

Not all e-ink displays are of equal quality. The newer ones should be ok, those claiming 16 levels of grey. However the definitive test should be made by your very own eyes.

Edit: I don't have a Kindle.

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#122

Post by cr0sh »

crieff wrote: post #110
cr0sh wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would find such a thing useful, if it worked on Linux. I don't even know how many academic papers (and datasheets, and other PDFs) I have - but it's a ton, and increasing all the time. Ideally, it would be nice if the app could do a search across a drive (or NAS, or whatever) for PDFs, pull out a summary and title, and then use that for naming/search/etc. Maybe your app already does this? To be honest - what I wish…

There are some applications that will do a full text search of pdfs across directories, but seem geared towards server rather than desktop, with commensurate levels of cost and complexity. Conceptually you could use image magik and lucene to make a Linux solution, but without any added features such as summary or title. I am experimenting with a lightweight solution, but am working out which compromises are reasonabl…

After I posted, I did some searching, and it appears like something could be made using SOLR or Elasticsearch. Both seem to have methods/plugins for filesystem indexing and document importing/analysis, as well as easy interfaces to allow for any language to be used for development. Combining all of that, plus some dev work and such a search appliance looks doable for a home system, using only a single node.

For the hardware, I figure I could potentially use some old stuff I have (thinking like a Core2 Quad with 16gb RAM and a large hard drive would be fine). I could probably stuff it into an old half-depth 1u server case. The problem now is finding the time to build it...

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#123

Post by wolrah »

saurabhjha wrote: post #87

I like to print them out. Reading from any type of screen hurts my eyes. Has anyone got experience reading papers in Kindle. How does it feel like?

e-ink displays look to your eyes basically like paper. I absolutely love my Kindle for reading books.

For papers though, not so much. The screen is too small for a layout format like PDF to work. The document has to be able to reflow for the screen like a proper e-book to work really well, and PDFs don't. I've heard the Kindle DX was great but those haven't been made in a while, otherwise there's a few big ones Sony made which are apparently awesome but expensive.

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#124

Post by rahimnathwani »

macintux wrote: post #85
rahimnathwani wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GoodReader's zoom in-out is so fast (at least on iPad Air 2), even on complex PDFs, that it's easy enough to zoom in on the occasional thing that's too small to read. I've been thinking about upgrading to a 12.9" iPad Pro myself, but the additional benefits (larger screen, Apple Pencil support, better colour fidelity) aren't worth it for my use cases.

I tried switching from an iPad Air 2 to a 12.9" iPad Pro primarily because I wanted something larger to read PDFs with, and quickly discovered it was too large to be my iPad for everything else. So, I'm waiting for a refresh and then I'll decide whether I can justify having two iPads.

"too large to be my iPad for everything else"

Because it's too large to carry around all the time, or because it's not comfortable to use when lying down, or something else?

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#125

Post by ouid »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #22
ouid wrote: post #15

I usually read with my brain.

You're new to HN, but as you'll find out, we don't really recommend posting jokes or wisecracks in the comments in an endeavor to keep the signal-to-noise ratio a little higher.

it was definitely glib, but I was trying to make the point that there's only one device that matters for such things.

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#127

Post by hurbledr »

cicloid wrote: post #108

Off topic: I expected to see more iPad instead of laptop as a response. Would the reason be economical, information density (more real state on a modern laptop/desktop) or something else?

Latency is the biggest issue with ipad for me. Laptops and desktops respond almost instantly when you type or scroll, while ipads and other tablets have a lot of latency built into the OS. I know an extra 20-60 milliseconds doesn't seem like much, but it definitely adds up, and it really ruins the feel of things.

When you read a physical book, you can flip through pages instantly and scan the contents with zero wait time. A laptop is much closer to this ideal than a tablet.

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#128

Post by babilator »

mwest wrote: post #83

To organise/track papers: I’m currently using Mendeley[1]. Previously, I used Papers[2]. Unfortunately, the latest version of Papers (3.x) is terrible compared to how slick the old version (2.x) was. I’ve tried ReadCube[3], but somehow I find Mendeley easier to work with. I used EndNote[4] before I discovered Papers, and wouldn’t recommend it. I keep all my .pdf files in Dropbox. Discussions/recommendations for paper…

You and several others have recommended Mendeley but I personally wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. It's a nice system but 1) it's proprietary, and 2) it's owned by Elsevier, a company notorious for its shady business practices:

- https://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/03/19/2220208/boycott...

- https://science.slashdot.org/story/13/12/06/1945224/elsevier...

- https://science.slashdot.org/story/15/11/02/1323258/all-edit...

Personally, I very much prefer Zotero but here's a great comparison of both software http://www.library.yorku.ca/web/research-learn/citations/zot...

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#130

Post by macintux »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #124
macintux wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried switching from an iPad Air 2 to a 12.9" iPad Pro primarily because I wanted something larger to read PDFs with, and quickly discovered it was too large to be my iPad for everything else. So, I'm waiting for a refresh and then I'll decide whether I can justify having two iPads.

"too large to be my iPad for everything else" Because it's too large to carry around all the time, or because it's not comfortable to use when lying down, or something else?

You nailed it. Too large to casually take with me when I leave, too large/awkward to comfortably use lying down.

I don't remember whether there were other problems because it took all of 15 minutes to realize I couldn't sell my smaller iPad to help pay for it and still have an iPad to use most of the time.

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