[Okular-devel] [Bug 261930] wish: plain text backend

[mark]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=261930

--- Comment #5 from mark <mark at ourlan.homelinux.net> ---
(In reply to comment #4)
> to be honest i don't see what okular can give you above a regular text
> document viewer (kate, kwrite). Yes, the duplication is kind of weird, since
> it asks for a different thing, but anyhow, since none of the okular
> developers see a need for this, don't expect this happening anytime soon
> unless you can explain what's the point.

OK, here is a free example of a plain-text book from smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/download/152391/6/latest/1/0/squatters-rights.txt

If you open this link in Firefox or Konqueror directly, you can't read the
text, becaue there is no word wrap. If you open it in Rekonq, it is much closer
to what we want in a plain-text viewer.

OK, from reKonq, now save the file on the local filesystem. Open it as a
plain-text local file from Konqueror. This gets close to waht we need to read
this plain-text ebbok. It pages OK using the spacebar, Ctrl+ and Ctrl- can be
used to zoom the text ... Konqueror makes a fair enogh reader/viewer for this
plain-text file.

OK, now open it in a text editor, such a Kwrite or Kate. You must first set the
word-wrap option, and then you can read it, and even use Ctrl+ and Ctrl- to
alter the font size. The default font isn't all that great fro reading as text
editors are intended more for uses such as program source code, but it OK-ish.
So I am not saying that plain-text ebooks cannot be read.

Now open the same text file in FBReader. Immediately it is apparent that there
is a problem with the font, and a number of the special characters are garbled
as a consequence. Apart from that, it is far more pleasant to read on-screen
therein, because FBReader is designed for displaying and reading prose, it is
not meant to be a source code text editor. In general, the user will have set
up FBReader with a nice, screen-readable default font, such as Linux Libertine
O, rather than a font designed for source code. It is just that FBReader
behaves as a reader, and not as a source code editor.

The point is that the preferred application for reading stuff on KDE is okular.
Okular boasts a feature that it can be used for mulitile ebook file formats ...
epub, PDF, Mobipocket, Plucker,     EPub ... but not simple plain-text.

ReKonq can be pressed into service for plain-text files, but it is very
frustrating to have to use Rekonq for reading plain text and Okular for
everything else. Why is okular so dismissive of plain text format?

The thing is, there is already sutable rendering code for plain text within
Rekonq. We already have it. It handles various plain text special characters
pretty well. And okular is generally a good reader program for the KDE desktop.
One would like to use Okular for reading all kinds of format of ebooks one
one's KDE desktop.

But palin text is the bugbear. It spoils the picture. Other (non-KDE) ebook
reader programs do not have this bug-bear. They can all handle plain text
pretty well. But not okular. Okular is for some reason prejudiced against the
plain text format. Yet there **IS** already code (in Rekonq) which can do what
would be desired as an okular plain text backend.

This is very, very annoying for an end user like myself. If I had the skills, I
would fix it myself. It would rip out soem plain-text rendering code from
Rekonq, and adapt it as a new backend for okular. Unfortunately, I don't know
how to do that. But I would very much like to have it.

Hence, it seems to me, to be a very reasonable topic for a wishlist request. It
would considerably add to the appeal of okular, and KDE, for me as an end user.

Pretty please?

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