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Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

readable.tastefulwords.com

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Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#21

Post by rudle »

tastefulwords wrote: post #12
eli wrote: post #6

So the source is licensed CC-Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, but there's no public repository or support? That's a curious approach.

The source code isn't in any repository because I don't work with repositories. And, if I were to list a specific version of the code, it would become slightly obsolete in less than a week -- as I am continually tweaking Readable's text-parsing algorithm. You can find an always up-do-date version of the code here: http://readable-static.tastefulwords.com/_r/bulk.js

>> The source code isn't in any repository because I don't work with repositories.

You really should be using version control. If you want people to contribute to this open-source project, you can't beat a public repository (like github) at which you can receive patches from other developers. Right now, it is not apparent how I can work to improve your project.

Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#22

Post by yourcelf »

tastefulwords wrote: post #19

I'm Readable's author. If anyone has any suggestions for improvements, or even feature requests, I'm all ears. I'm not promising I'll implement them; but I'll definitely listen and consider them carefully. P.S. jbm, thanks a lot for posting this -- I've tried posting Readable to HC myself (twice), but it didn't stick.

One thing the new readability does that I love: when paging down with the space bar, it puts a spot (•) in the margin where the previous bottom of the page was, and then smooth scrolls. Together, these make it much easier to keep your place on the page when scrolling; a bit enhancement to easy readability.

It would be even better if you could bookmark your place in a long document and return to it later...

Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#23

Post by ambiguity »

riobard wrote: post #13
FilterJoe wrote: post #11

Comparison of the new versions of Readable and Readability, here: http://www.filterjoe.com/2011/04/11/web-page-reformatting-se... Hightlights: The new Readability takes 6-12 seconds to reformat a page, vs. less than 2 seconds for both the new readable and the old Readability. New Readability has more features, including Instapaper-like sharing for those who pay. It is possible to use the old Readability, for those wh…

Readability 2.0 choosing to load and reformat the pages via their server instead of doing it in place in browser really slows it down.

It does make it nice that I can share links to the "readable" version with other people.

Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#24

Post by tastefulwords »

yourcelf wrote: post #22
tastefulwords wrote: post #19

I'm Readable's author. If anyone has any suggestions for improvements, or even feature requests, I'm all ears. I'm not promising I'll implement them; but I'll definitely listen and consider them carefully. P.S. jbm, thanks a lot for posting this -- I've tried posting Readable to HC myself (twice), but it didn't stick.

One thing the new readability does that I love: when paging down with the space bar, it puts a spot (•) in the margin where the previous bottom of the page was, and then smooth scrolls. Together, these make it much easier to keep your place on the page when scrolling; a bit enhancement to easy readability. It would be even better if you could bookmark your place in a long document and return to it later...

Noted. Count on finding both of those in a future release.

The first one I was actually doing before Readability -- the old version of Readable did it (and Readability wasn't), but I haven't yet reimplemented the feature in the new version.

Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#25

Post by tastefulwords »

rudle wrote: post #21
tastefulwords wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The source code isn't in any repository because I don't work with repositories. And, if I were to list a specific version of the code, it would become slightly obsolete in less than a week -- as I am continually tweaking Readable's text-parsing algorithm. You can find an always up-do-date version of the code here: http://readable-static.tastefulwords.com/_r/bulk.js

>> The source code isn't in any repository because I don't work with repositories. You really should be using version control. If you want people to contribute to this open-source project, you can't beat a public repository (like github) at which you can receive patches from other developers. Right now, it is not apparent how I can work to improve your project.

You are correct, sir. But I haven't really gotten in to the open-source game just yet -- maybe I should; I don't know.

I am using version control; just not public version control.

If you want to help, get in touch (http://readable.tastefulwords.com/about-and-contact/). I'm happy to hear any ideas; and, if you want to do some actual work, that would be quite awesome too.

Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#26

Post by tastefulwords »

ambiguity wrote: post #23
riobard wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Readability 2.0 choosing to load and reformat the pages via their server instead of doing it in place in browser really slows it down.

It does make it nice that I can share links to the "readable" version with other people.

This is a planned feature for Readable, too.

Count on seeing it in a future release.

Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#27

Post by Sephr »

beaumartinez wrote: post #18

A great improvement over Readability! It's bookmarklet has been replaced, at least on my bookmark bar: it's faster, has increased customization options and justification, and is open-source... Add hyphenation to that mix and you've got a solid ten out of ten service. (Justification and hyphenation were the two features I always wanted Readability to have, and it always seemed odd to me that something branded "readabi…

Why would you want justification in something that's supposed to make something more readable? Justification might make text look nice, but it's terrible for readability, and people with dyslexia often struggle at reading it, and the same usually goes for hyphenation.

Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#28

Post by tastefulwords »

tastefulwords wrote: post #17
tuxcanfly wrote: post #5

I hope this doesn't track what I'm reading unlike the new readability.

Yup; all text processing is done in the browser. URLs are tracked, though -- they would be tracked in my server logs, even if I didn't do anything specific to track them. But they are intentionally tracked -- and a percentage of them are run through an automated Readable test, every day, so that I can see, on average, how often Readable gets things wrong.

I will also be adding an option that will disable even this anonymous tracking, for those who really want/need it.

However, you'll just have to take my word for it that I won't be reading the server logs -- which contain the same, if not more, data.

Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#29

Post by telemachos »

tastefulwords wrote: post #14
j_baker wrote: post #4

"Legally, Readable's source is under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license." Erm... Why? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Creative Commons wasn't made for code. There are plenty (even too many) open source licenses to choose from. Why not one of those? EDIT: Yup, using cc for source code is not recommended: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ#Can_I_use_a_Creative_Com...

Honestly, I browsed around for less then ten minutes, before deciding on Creative Commons for the code -- and I did so only because I previously saw source-code under various Creative Commons licenses. I did not know that it wasn't recommended; thanks for letting me know. I'll be sure to study the issue more thoroughly and re-license the code.

Open Source Licenses[1] is a good place to "shop" for licenses, though you might find the "by name" view a bit overwhelming. Maybe start with from the "Licenses that are popular and widely used or with strong communities" section on the "by category"[2] page.

[1] http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html

[2] http://www.opensource.org/licenses/category

Re: Readable: A more readable version of "readability"

#30

Post by shiven »

I still don't get how/why is this different/better than the firefox readability extension?

The commercialized readability was a step back from the bookmarklet, but this firefox extension seems to work as well if not better. Could someone more experienced please explain this to an ignoramus ...

[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/readability/

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