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I recently purchased a Kindle to restart my interest in reading and of course the first thing I did was to figure out how to develop my own software for it. It

I recently purchased a Kindle to restart my interest in reading and of course the first thing I did was to figure out how to develop my own software for it. It turns out that the Kindle runs an embedded version of Java without a GC. This seems to have stifled the development quite a bit, so it's really cool to see how Raspberry-Pi/Inky homebrew is becoming a thing.

jedimastert 7y ago
They used to have a Java SDK, unfortunately it's not around anymore. I used to have a serviceable version of Monopoly with a "reasonable" AI. I'm really sad that there isn't a Kindle app ecosystem.
_emacsomancer_ 7y ago
There's software which can be side-loaded on Kindles (and Kobos etc.), e.g. Koreader, written in Lua: https://github.com/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader
- cmroanirgo 7y ago
  I've been looking for a project like this. Thanks!
- therein 7y ago
  There is also plato. Original repo: https://github.com/baskerville/plato https://github.com/baskerville/plato libremarkable fork: https://github.com/darvin/plato https://github.com/darvin/plato
  - _emacsomancer_ 7y ago
    I know of plato, but haven't used it before. Do you have experience using it? / are you able to compare it with koreader?
    - therein 7y ago
      I haven't used it as my primary driver but tested releases of it on my Remarkable Tablet. As far as my experience went, it was pleasant and pretty feature complete, at least as an ePUB, DJVU and PDF document reader.
      - _emacsomancer_ 7y ago
        Ok, I installed it (it just sideloads like Koreader, so it doesn't 'overwrite' anything) to try it out. It worked fine overall, but: 1) It took a lot longer to load than Koreader (so much so that I thought the reader had frozen) 2) I couldn't figure out how to have it trim PDF whitespace as tightly as Koreader does, which is important for being able to reasonably read pdf files. 3) I added additional fonts into its font directory (and I noticed that some other fonts were already there), but for epubs I couldn't figure out how to change the font from Libertinus Serif. 4) It's not clear that it has all of the advanced font features regarding kerning & ligatures that Koreader has added. (I'm not sure what's enabled by default in terms of kerning/ligatures since I couldn't change to a font that I'm more familiar with.) 5) It generally seems to have fewer features than Koreader. But: 6) Visually, the interface is cleaner-looking than Koreader's. And it's a simpler (and perhaps easier/more intuitive) interface than Koreader's. So perhaps I'd recommend it for someone who wanted something more basic/easier, but at this point I'll stick with Koreader.
nanomonkey 7y ago
There is a project to build an open source OS for the kindle: http://fread.ink http://fread.ink
ForHackernews 7y ago
The B&N Nook devices are running Android and can be rooted to allow installing your own apps on them. They're a much more accessible eink platform than Kindle, IMHO.

jedimastert 7y ago

They used to have a Java SDK, unfortunately it's not around anymore. I used to have a serviceable version of Monopoly with a "reasonable" AI. I'm really sad that there isn't a Kindle app ecosystem.

_emacsomancer_ 7y ago

There's software which can be side-loaded on Kindles (and Kobos etc.), e.g. Koreader, written in Lua: https://github.com/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader

cmroanirgo 7y ago
I've been looking for a project like this. Thanks!
therein 7y ago
There is also plato. Original repo: https://github.com/baskerville/plato https://github.com/baskerville/plato libremarkable fork: https://github.com/darvin/plato https://github.com/darvin/plato
- _emacsomancer_ 7y ago
  I know of plato, but haven't used it before. Do you have experience using it? / are you able to compare it with koreader?
  - therein 7y ago
    I haven't used it as my primary driver but tested releases of it on my Remarkable Tablet. As far as my experience went, it was pleasant and pretty feature complete, at least as an ePUB, DJVU and PDF document reader.
    - _emacsomancer_ 7y ago
      Ok, I installed it (it just sideloads like Koreader, so it doesn't 'overwrite' anything) to try it out. It worked fine overall, but: 1) It took a lot longer to load than Koreader (so much so that I thought the reader had frozen) 2) I couldn't figure out how to have it trim PDF whitespace as tightly as Koreader does, which is important for being able to reasonably read pdf files. 3) I added additional fonts into its font directory (and I noticed that some other fonts were already there), but for epubs I couldn't figure out how to change the font from Libertinus Serif. 4) It's not clear that it has all of the advanced font features regarding kerning & ligatures that Koreader has added. (I'm not sure what's enabled by default in terms of kerning/ligatures since I couldn't change to a font that I'm more familiar with.) 5) It generally seems to have fewer features than Koreader. But: 6) Visually, the interface is cleaner-looking than Koreader's. And it's a simpler (and perhaps easier/more intuitive) interface than Koreader's. So perhaps I'd recommend it for someone who wanted something more basic/easier, but at this point I'll stick with Koreader.

nanomonkey 7y ago

There is a project to build an open source OS for the kindle: http://fread.ink http://fread.ink

ForHackernews 7y ago

The B&N Nook devices are running Android and can be rooted to allow installing your own apps on them. They're a much more accessible eink platform than Kindle, IMHO.