On 28.01.2010, at 12:25, Christiaan Hofman wrote: >>> >>> 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.
I'm not saying that a complete duplication is needed or even sensible for the iPad, but I certainly can of think of scenarios where it would make sense to edit your bibliographic data on your iPad. If I read a PDF with the hypothetical PDF viewer, I probably also want to be able to change things for this specific entry like keywords or marking it as read and so on. Being able to edit the BibTeX data certainly makes sense. Other parts of BibDesk like the templating and export system, the LaTeX preview or z39.50 import are probably much less useful. But in the end, this just means that it would need a completely new app, which you said right from the beginning. Simon -- Simon Spiegel Steinhaldenstr. 50 8002 Zürich Telephon: ++41 44 451 5334 Mobophon: ++41 76 459 60 39 http://www.simifilm.ch „Goethen getroffen. Beeindruckt.“ Unbekannt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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
