ReadTheLine is a software implementing an
innovative scrolling derived from the scrolling of ReadThemAll
(software for PalmOS devices).
It works like this.
You start reading the line and after you reach the end of the line you
move your eyes to the beginning and see the new text.
Note:
"ReadTheLine" is not a trademark, it's just a unique
way to identify the program on the Internet.
Why
would I want to use it?
Initially when the reader for PalmOS appeared
(ReadThemAll), one would want to use the auto-scroll since the screen
of
mobile devices is very small and there were just too many pages to
scroll manually. Looking at the PC screen, you can see that there is
much more space to show a page and it looks like there's no
need
to press a
key frequently and implement any auto-scroll in the first place. But as
a flexible device computer can always suggest
something new to improve your speed of reading. So ReadTheLine (RTL)
may signifcally improve your reading speed and with it you probably
will be able to "eat" books one by one :)
Note:
Those who
has a large screen TV set connected to the computer as a monitor can
try to use the software on it. It may give a little different
experience and may be more comfortable in some cases.
Step
by step description
Here I will show how RTL-autoscrolling works. The
current place of reading is underlined text.
You
start reading and you're reaching the words "when she struggled"
While
your eyes continue
reading following the word "against", the text at the begining of the
screen is being replaced by the text of the next line of book ("sire to
begin
him ir.." is actually the new text)
You're
reaching the end of
the line and when your eyes jumps to the start of the line you see the
new text. It's like jumping to the new line of a real-world book, but
in this case the line is the same.
As
usually you
continue
your eye movement until you reach the middle of the line. We made a
full circle
Hyphenation
You probaly know what the hyphenation is. It's when a word
splitted
in two parts, one is showed at the end of the line and another part at
the beginning of the next. hyphenation is widely used in books,
magazines and newspapers. The main advantage of it is that it equalize
the lengths of different lines for more comfortable reading. The
shorter the line the more hyphenation affects the reading
experience.
ReadTheLine software supports
hyphenation, but
it needs some additional files specific to the language of the book.
It's called "TeX hyphenation pattern files". There are plenty of them
available free of charge but with different licenses more or less
limited in terms of distribution. So there are none present at the
moment in the RTL download package. In order to use it you have to
download it manually and place it near the ReadTheLine executable or in
any subfolder.
Here are the links to some
sites containing text hyphenation pattern files:
Also
you always can use search queries containing words "TeX", "hyphenation"
"patterns" while adding the language title.
Download
Download
the latest version 1.1.5.1 (zip)
(28 jun 2007). Unzip the executable and place it in the folder of your
choice. Consider adding hyphenation pattern files, but it's always
optional (read hyphenation part above for the details). Access
additional information with right-click/About menu.
System
requirements: Windows with Win32 support (95/98/2000/XP/Vista).
Feedback
Feel free to send suggestion
and comments to maxerist@gmail.com
Let me
know what is the features you'd like to see in future
versions. Have a good reading time!
