This is Zach's personal blog. If you're looking for his movies, please click here. Otherwise, have fun!

Friday, September 07, 2007

Ah, the perils of users.

Here's the problem with non-commercial software, kids. I don't want to implement what everyone is asking for--PDF support in Books.app. PDF is a horrible format for eBooks--there's no way to reflow the text, since you're basically looking at a picture. I don't want that reading experience for myself. But a lot of people do.

So? What to do about it?

I'm thinking about a tip jar, with a certain amount of money required for me to begin work on PDF support. If I'm gonna do something I don't want to do, I better get paid for it. That seems fair, doesn't it? What do you think?

The number of people using Books.app is pretty impressive. And if someone doesn't want to pay me, maybe they'll be motivated to code it themselves.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems fair to me... the non-iPhone user. ;-)

Clint said...

Mr. Brewster-Geisz:

I am a big fan of Books.app (now at 1.0!). A great iPhone application, and one I have been wanting since the iPhone appeared.

To show my appreciation, I was looking to send you a tip via PayPal, but you have no contact information on this blog! :-( (Plus, your site http://www.zacharybrewstergeisz.com/ has expired).

Hey, make it easier for people to give you money! :-)

Best wishes,
Clint
clint DOTT macdonald ATT mac DOTT com

Avi said...

I'm ready to donate! Books.app rocks!

As for PDF support: why not just point people to MobilePreview? And you could even display PDF files in the books list, but if someone clicks on one, open it in MobilePreview. That way we'd still have a single unified view for all eBooks.

This might satisfy what the requesters have in mind, without requiring all sorts of display work on your part.