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Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

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Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#31

Post by jgillich »

JasonFruit wrote: post #28

Ecosystems are tough. I'd never used meson, so I installed it using apt-get. I tried to build Foliate, and got an error about wrong arguments to `project()`. Searching for the error brought results about a wrong version, so I uninstalled meson and reinstalled it using pip. The installation completed fine. I went to run Foliate (com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate, if that wasn't somehow obvious), and I got an error from…

This is exactly what Flatpak solves.

https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.github.johnfactotum.Fol...

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#32

Post by matthewbauer »

jgillich wrote: post #31
JasonFruit wrote: post #28

Ecosystems are tough. I'd never used meson, so I installed it using apt-get. I tried to build Foliate, and got an error about wrong arguments to `project()`. Searching for the error brought results about a wrong version, so I uninstalled meson and reinstalled it using pip. The installation completed fine. I went to run Foliate (com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate, if that wasn't somehow obvious), and I got an error from…

This is exactly what Flatpak solves. https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.github.johnfactotum.Fol...

But then you can't make changes to the app! You're stuck with a read-only copy.

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#33

Post by johnfactotum »

JasonFruit wrote: post #28

Ecosystems are tough. I'd never used meson, so I installed it using apt-get. I tried to build Foliate, and got an error about wrong arguments to `project()`. Searching for the error brought results about a wrong version, so I uninstalled meson and reinstalled it using pip. The installation completed fine. I went to run Foliate (com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate, if that wasn't somehow obvious), and I got an error from…

Hi, author of Foliate here. It sounds like you're using something like Ubuntu 16.04 or similar? Foliate currently requires GJS >= 1.52 and Meson >= 0.40.

There's an open issue here on supporting older systems: https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate/issues/45

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#34

Post by johnfactotum »

matthewbauer wrote: post #32
jgillich wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what Flatpak solves. https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.github.johnfactotum.Fol...

But then you can't make changes to the app! You're stuck with a read-only copy.

You can build your own Flatpaks from source, too. In fact that's probably how a lot of development is done these days around GNOME and its wider community when using Gnome Builder. You make a change, and Gnome Builder builds a Flatpak and runs it for you so you can test it.

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#35

Post by tomlong »

iamnotacrook wrote: post #22
2rsf wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can reader using Calibre, it's far from being a good reader https://news-cdn.softpedia.com/images/news2/calibre-ebook-re...

If you open a .mobi in Calibre it takes tens of seconds, on a reasonably fast system, to open small (<2meg) books. I'd agree with the other comments here - Calibre is great in terms of it being powerful (web server to serve up books directly to a kindle without having to plug it in, search is ok once you know how to use it) but has a terrible UI (I shouldn't have to google to discover how to search my local library).

I've been using Calibre-Web[1] as a frontend for the Calibre database, visiting it with my Kobo Auro H2O.

It will do neat things like convert to Kindle & email to the Kindle address with a button press as well so I can give access to my mum and so she can seamlessly read the epub books I have in my library on her Kindle.

It doesn't look great on the Kobo, but I can navigate pretty quickly to download a book, and I hardly ever have to touch calibre itself.

It's pretty easy to get set up running headlessly on a server somwhere.

[1] https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#36

Post by hbbio »

Just looking at the source and finding out it's JavaScript.

Although I'm probably living in a cave and didn't use Linux often on the desktop since years, it is common practice now to write Gtk/Gnome apps in JS? I tought Vala was the cool language for that kind of apps...

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#37

Post by jancsika »

JasonFruit wrote: post #28

Ecosystems are tough. I'd never used meson, so I installed it using apt-get. I tried to build Foliate, and got an error about wrong arguments to `project()`. Searching for the error brought results about a wrong version, so I uninstalled meson and reinstalled it using pip. The installation completed fine. I went to run Foliate (com.github.johnfactotum.Foliate, if that wasn't somehow obvious), and I got an error from…

> Searching for the error brought results about a wrong version

One of the bullet points from the Meson website:

> * fun!

So if I understand correctly, this modern build tool created to replace all the extant time-wasting build tools got memorialized in Debian in a half-baked state where it's not compatible with future versions.

Also-- the fact that you had to leave the hardened bank vault of apt through the screen door of pip... to install a thing to build other things to run on your system.

I love it.

> If so, why is it I so seldom can can get anything written for GJS, or Node, or a Python program not my own, to install and run without a three-hour yak shave?

... is the question that explains why Electron exists. Every comment on HN about its size, memory usage, and insecurity doubles as a critique of all the problems you just hit with a Linux system.

Electron: "Memory and disk space is cheap enough, but your time will never be."

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#38

Post by chrisseaton »

hbbio wrote: post #36

Just looking at the source and finding out it's JavaScript. Although I'm probably living in a cave and didn't use Linux often on the desktop since years, it is common practice now to write Gtk/Gnome apps in JS? I tought Vala was the cool language for that kind of apps...

> I tought Vala was the cool language for that kind of apps...

I think you’re about ten years behind the trend.

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#39

Post by pratio »

hbbio wrote: post #36

Just looking at the source and finding out it's JavaScript. Although I'm probably living in a cave and didn't use Linux often on the desktop since years, it is common practice now to write Gtk/Gnome apps in JS? I tought Vala was the cool language for that kind of apps...

It uses epub.js which i think is really cool for rendering the documents. The UI looks pretty impressive as well. For anyone coming from Calibre, this would look amazing

Re: Foliate – A simple and modern GTK eBook viewer

#40

Post by johnfactotum »

ayoisaiah wrote: post #18
lulouie wrote: post #2

I'm using Linux and trying to find a e-reader recently. Here is what I tested on Arch: Calibre: Failed to open Okular: Ugly, cannot modify margin bookworm: No two-page view, only scrolling-mode, and scrolling-mode cannot get the reading progress zathura: too simplify resulting in not know how to use lector: cannot recognize epub...... Buka: cannot open the book. (I don't get the logic flow, create a list first, then…

Bookworm definitely has a two-page view. I'm using it on Elementary OS

Two-page view in Bookworm is problematic. See https://github.com/babluboy/bookworm/issues/199
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