On Jan 28, 2010, at 11:43, Simon Spiegel wrote: > > On 28.01.2010, at 11:34, Christiaan Hofman wrote: > >> >> On Jan 28, 2010, at 9:53, Simon Spiegel wrote: >> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>> This is an interesting discussion. For me the most critical requirement >>>>> is to have an annotation application that uses ink. I need to be able to >>>>> jot down margin notes by hand rather than typing on a window. Then the >>>>> integration of this pdf previewer/annotator and bibdesk would be great. >>>>> Some method such as the one used by, for example, Papers where the pdf >>>>> file can be read within Papers would be good. >>>> >>>> As far as it goes, you can read PDF files page-by-page in BibDesk, if you >>>> zoom in on the file icons in the lower pane, or use the Quick Look >>>> preview. No annotation or fancy reading features, though. >>>> >>>> My guess is that the iPad would basically require a new application; >>>> BibDesk is heavily oriented and optimized for usage on a laptop or desktop >>>> system. That would require significant effort, not to mention a developer >>>> with an iPad :). It does look like a good platform for that sort of app, >>>> so it'll be interesting to see what happens. Both you and James have >>>> emphasized the reading/annotating aspect, so I'm curious whether you're >>>> looking for BibDesk with a viewer, or Skim with a PDF manager. >> >> I think it's clear that what one wants (and should want) is something very >> different from BibDesk or Skim. BibDesk is citation manager, to help with >> organizing bibtex, while this is about reading, annotating, and organizing >> PDFs. So it's more like Skim with a PDF organizing feature. As for the code >> base, I can tell you that 90% of BibDesk and Skim are totally useless for >> use on an iPad or iPhone. Therefore we're really talking about a totally >> different and new app, that needs to be written basically from scratch. Most >> relevant, Skim and all its annotation features are heavily based on PDFKit, >> which is not available on the iPhone OS, I think the only thing that would >> remain is the (tiny) SkimNotesBase framework for accessing Skim notes. The >> more primitive Quartz framework is much harder to work with, so writing >> Skim's functionality for the iPad would be a lot more work than writing Skim >> for MacOSX. I think we all agree that it would be very nice to have all this >> functionality for the iPad. But given that, the first question should be: >> who will be writing a totally new app that would be quite a lot of work? I >> can assure you I won't do it, and I suspect Adam would say the same. So if >> no one would want to start developing, I'm afraid this discussion is rather >> academic. > > Since most people who use BibDesk are probably academics, this is not per se > a negative thing. ;) At least for me, I wouldn't want just a modified version > of Skim, but also a way to edit my bibtex data on the iPad. So far, there is > no way to do that. When there was only the iPhone there was always the > argument, that such a small device isn't really the best way to edit your > bibliographic data. Now with the iPad, I think this has changed. I think > there really is a market for a bibliography app for the iPad (and Papers is > not a bibliography app …). > > Anyway, I completely understand that this needs actually someone to do it. > Thanks for explaining how much – or better: how little – of the existing code > could be used. > > Simon
I am pretty sure that a combo of citation management, PDF management, PDF viewing, and PDF annotating is really not possible on a device like iPad (and certainly not iPhone). We came to the conclusion that this was not even feasible on a normal computer or laptop without compromising too much. There's a limited number of keyboard shortcuts and menu items that you can offer, and the choices for those are very different for a citation manager and a PDF viewer/annotator. This is the reason we went for separate apps. With much less interaction you're much more restricted in what you can do, so you need to be much more focused on a single feature, you can't work with menu items and keyboard shortcuts. PDF organize + viewer/annotator can be combined, but citation manager would be a different app. And lots of functions of BibDesk are really not appropriate for iPads at all. Christiaan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Planet: dedicated and managed hosting, cloud storage, colocation Stay online with enterprise data centers and the best network in the business Choose flexible plans and management services without long-term contracts Personal 24x7 support from experience hosting pros just a phone call away. http://p.sf.net/sfu/theplanet-com _______________________________________________ Bibdesk-users mailing list Bibdesk-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bibdesk-users
