Plucker is a great reader, and I look forward to some
of the refinements people are discussing (particularly
getting rid of the 32k chunk size).
However, I have a problem: what I'd also like to have
is a simple editor (word processor), sufficient to take
notes at a meeting or edit some file I'm working on.
I could buy such a proprietary program (at no small fee), but then
I'll have to keep buying it to get maintenance, and it
only helps me, not anyone else. And I'm locked into it - I can't
fix anything they do to me.
So, I have a proposal: I'm offering a $100 bounty for someone
who will create a simple GPL'ed basic text editor for PalmOS
by May 2003 that can do the following:
* Edit Plucker files and Aportis DOC files (Palm).
This should have the effect of editing at least
HTML and ASCII text files (as stored on the host system).
I don't need Microsoft Word compatibility, but I bet some
people would like room so it could be expanded to that later.
* Be able to round-trip documents (i.e., it must be possible to
take existing HTML and ASCII documents on a host system,
transfer them to the Palm, edit them, and bring them back,
with no loss and the only changes made are those that are
made by the user on the Palm. It needs to make minimal changes,
and not lose CR locations, or "diff" and friends will go crazy).
* Full-sized keyboard support (inc. arrow keys, scroll keys).
* "Normal" editing: cut, copy, paste, stylus to move cursor and select
text, page up/page down, delete key, typing puts text there.
* A find command, at least one that searches the current "page".
* Transparent support for single files up to 1.2 Meg in size.
I'd like to be able to edit my "Secure Programming" file, which
is already 560k of docbook. I don't mind writing directly in
docbook when using docbook, but any chunking has to be transparent.
ZDoc, for example, utterly fails this requirement.
Even my simple travel reports easily use up its stingy 4K blocksize,
making me break up reports in very awkward ways.
Even Plucker's current 32K blocking would be problematic for
files of that size. It can use blocks internally.. they just need
to be invisible to users.
* For HTML/Plucker files, display bold, italics, and headings
using varying fonts, and be able to indicate the existance of a link
(as well as being able to change the link target).
I would expect this to be in an "HTML view" mode.
* Be able to edit HTML directly (i.e., without an "HTML view"),
if I want to work in the HTML for a while and then switch back.
This thing doesn't have to be in Plucker itself, but I'd like them
to work together. I realize $100 isn't much, but I don't have a
lot of money, and I hope that others will add to the bounty.
And if someone was thinking of doing this anyway, here's incentive.
Anyone willing to add to the bounty? Or even better, willing to do it?
--- David A. Wheeler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
