IDAIR:

an opensource platform independant daisy reader

Important note:

IDAIR is under heavy contruction, and the development of it has a much higher priority than the maintainance of this web site. So, until things are stable again, only belief what is in CVS (the tcl/tk port in gui_src is the focus). Most of the following is still true, but I "<strike>~~burp~~</strike>"-ed it until it's verified and/or updated.

What's this?

This is the beta version of an open source, platform independant command-line daisy reader. It now also has a GUI for Linux (and maybe for Windoze in the future; but there are already plenty so it has no priority). It can read daisy books from any location, either from local (e.g. a cdrom or a directory/folder on your hard or network drive) or remote (using the http:// or ftp:// protocol) storage. It can easely be ported to whatever platform or embedded or mobile device.

If you want to keep informed about the progress, have questions or comments? Please join the idair-users list. Do you want to help or discuss the technical aspects of idair? Please join the idair-developers list.

Why?

Because there wasn't a command-line daisy reader yet, for Windows nor Linux, nor a GUI daisy reader for Linux.
Now there is.
Because there wasn't a daisy reader that could read daisy books online from the intra/inter net.
Now there is. With (basic) authorisation and all that.

What's new?

~~18 december 2003: version 0.8.3 released: custom keymaps support is growing mature, lots of other enhancements and improvements.~~
~~12 december 2003: MSVC build is back online~~
~~11 december 2003: keymaps are implemented, cygwin build is prosponed (it's too slow for development)~~
~~5 december 2003: restructured cvs for a more solid automake, the gui and internationalization is temporary off-line but will be back soon.~~
~~activated trackers for bugs and feature-requests~~
~~implemented http://user:passwd@host:port/path/to/file, also for ftp~~
2 december 2003: version 0.7 released
~~Lots of improvements in xml parsing and text display~~
~~User controls are now handled in a seperate thread, giving much a smoother response~~
~~New options: --noText and --onlyHeaders~~
~~The source tree now has it's own ./configure that should work on any gnu-ish platform (windoze still has it's own idair.dsw and idair.mak for use with MSVC++ 6.0).~~
~~An experimental GUI for linux is in CVS, but I still have to figure out how to make it work without the need for having the mozilla build tree online.~~

Screenshot?

~~The (experimental) GUI interface for linux~~I verified and updated it.

Why should I buy it?

~~You don't have to, it's free. Go to the download section and try it. If you like it, find bugs or have suggestion, please let me know.~~

System requirements

Linux

~~a working OSS soundsystem (read/write permission on /dev/dsp !!!), or ALSA with OSS emulation.~~

~~libmad needs to be installed (most linux distro's will have it)~~

~~the GUI needs gtk+-2.0 and the mozilla libs and include files built with gtk+-2.0.~~

Windows

~~nothing special really~~

Installation

Either download a precompiled binairy from the download page or download the source tar ball and compile it your self (see the INSTALL* files for brief instructions). RPM and an installShield will be there shortly.

Usage

~~Start the program from a command line with one argument, the ncc file, e.g.~~


  [linux]
  idair /cdrom/ncc.html
  idair ~/mybooks/title/something

  [windoze]
  idair d:\ncc.html
  idair k:\mybooks\title\ncc.html

  [both]
  idair http://host/path/ncc.html
  idair http://user:passwd@my.host.org:80/daisy/books/ncc.html
  idair ftp://host/path/ncc.html
  idair ftp://user:passwd@ftp.my.host.org:21/daisy/books/ncc.html

You could try some options if you like: "idair --help" will show which are available.

Standard controls are simple keystrokes (press '?' while playing):

Keyboard controls:
 
"?"          - show current key bindings
" "          - toggle play/pause sequential playback
RETURN       - start/continue sequential playback
ESC          - pause sequential playback
"V"          - increase volume
"v"          - decrease volume
CTRL-V       - # set volume (%)
"S"          - increase speed
"s"          - decrease speed
CTRL-S       - # set speed (%)
"N"          - change navigation level from chapter through page to phrase
UP-ARROW     - change navigation level from chapter through page to phrase
"n"          - change navigation level from phrase through page to chapter
DOWN-ARROW   - change navigation level from chapter through page to phrase
"l"          - next level
RIGHT-ARROW  - next level
"L"          - previous level
LEFT-ARROW   - previous level
"x"          - skip current clip
"r"          - restart current level
"R"          - restart current book
HOME         - restart current book
"="          - show current position
"q"          - quit
"Q"          - please quit
CTRL-C       - Please, QUIT
CTRL-\       - QUIT PLEASE!

~~but custom keymaps can be used/designed with the --keyMap=<custom> and the --showKeys options.~~

Disclaimer

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

It has been tested on Linux (RedHat 7.3, gcc 2.95.3) and Windows (98SE, MSVC++ 6.0) but should probable work on other versions as well (please report). The source code and precompiled binaries can be found in the download section.

(c) Johan Knol