Updated reader in the beta test area, hoping to get a few more people trying it out and giving feedback. So far comments are generally positive, with some useful suggestions being implemented. Some things I’ve added recently:

• color choices (paper and ink color) being adjustable on a book by book or template basis.
• better support for monochrome (paletted) modes.
• regular expression searching… although I still want to look at a simpler syntax given the erkiness of regexp syntax

At my end Reader is functioning very nicely at the moment. It looks good and it works well, with things like bookmarks etc functioning nicely… and I just realized I’d better update the documentation before I get people trying it. Damn, it’s so easy to forget these things!

[... furious typing elsewhere...]

12:16 AM

Ok, so now I’m going to upload. Unless I discover yet another niggling issue just as I establish my incredibly fast 28.8K uplink. (it’s about time for ADSL!)

The good thing about having already posted earlier versions of a piece of software is that I cant just sit on a current version tweaking endlessly without releasing it. This is because I know there’s an older version out there which is looking more and more crummy compared to the one I am working on, and a sense of vanity forces me to replace it ASAP. Obviously once a piece of software is properly released it would be unreasonable to expect people to download new versions every few weeks, but with test stuff, I think maybe the quicker the better. In theory the testing experience should become a dialog between me, the developer, and [some of] you, the testers. I like to try to fix things quick. It gives me great satisfaction to deliver a requested feature (or bug fix). So come on testers… fee-ee-ee-ee-eedback!