Wanted
A C and python programmer to do the heavy lifting on a port of the FBReader source to MS Windows and the creation of a converter from OEB and OpenReader formats to FB2. Interest in SVG a distinct plus.

OK, I’m not a programmer, though I’ve managed to say “Hello, World” in a half-dozen languages. C is not one of those; however, I did struggle through 41 pages of Kernighan and Ritchie back in 1981. (I gave up when I couldn’t figure out what they meant when they said to pop a stack, and no one I asked knew what I was talking about.)

But I like FBReader so much I want to get it onto the Windows computer I use daily. And, more importantly, onto the Windows computers of most everyone I know. There is no e-reader that spans Windows and Linux, and I hope FBReader can manage that.

Nicolay Pultsin and Mikhail Sobolev are responsible for creating FBReader and getting it on the Nokia 770 and the Linux desktop, and they have their hands full finishing the program. FBReader still needs bookmark and annotation capabilities, not to mention integrating a dictionary, adding table support, and reading additional formats.

Rather than get in their way — they’ve been doing pretty well without me — I’m thinking the best way to boost FBReader is to do what they can’t or don’t plan to do. Of course, this has the side effect of boosting the Nokia 770 as FBReader’s prime platform. The combination of the 770’s display (the pixel density provides for font size control in one-third-of-a-point increments) and portability with the most capable and customizable e-reader will be a tipping point in the 770’s favor when compared to other devices.

One part of making FBReader more accessible is to enable more e-books to be read on it. Since FBReader does its best work with e-books in FictionBook 2.0 form, I want to get more e-books into FB2. And that’s whay I’d like to get a converter written in a cross-platform language like python (yes, so you can even use it on your 770). Maybe later on, modules can be written to accept open formats like OEB and OpenReader directly.

And SVG? Just looking down the road. E-readers should be able to handle anything browsers can.

Any programmers out there interested?