An eBook reader app for programmers?

August 27, 2013 9:11 AM

I'm wondering if such an animal exists (for Mac): An eBook (PDF or ePub or basically any format that O'Reilly supports) reader that focuses on the needs of computer programmers. Specifically, handles copying code well (removes unwanted characters, spacing, page footers, etc.), inserts syntax coloring, and allows for reading without page breaks/footers.
posted by gwint to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Perhaps a subscription to Safari Books Online? They have an HTML view that doesn't show the footer or page breaks between sections. You can copy the code bits from the chapters and there doesn't seem to be any added formatting when pasted into the text editor of your choice. No syntax coloring though.
posted by FreezBoy at 10:55 AM on August 27, 2013

I really like Skim for science-y stuff, have you tried that?
posted by oceanjesse at 1:03 PM on August 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

I came to post the same question and found it had been already asked....

I've been using Calibre's built in E-book Viewer.
Nice stuff:
-full screen
-j/k for changing pages
-the best Table of Contents viewer/navigator I've found.
-fonts look good/easy on the eyes ( I was using the kindle app and it was fonts fuzzy on my work laptop )
-seems to work with every pdf/mobi/epub i've tried.
-easy to open up multiple instances of the same book. (for flipping back and forth)

Missing:
-Highlighting
-CLI for running the ebook-viewer a bit messy. (lots of debugging in the terminal)
-"hard" to see how long chapters are.
-it's a little retro/unpolished in places but nothing you can't get used to and i recommend the full screen.

I had a Safari subscription via work and have built up a bit of a library and read a few books this way.
I'm still missing something from having a physical book. Being able to look up something in the index and at the same time flipping between two different sections just seems like to much effort.
posted by Spumante at 4:39 AM on March 28, 2014

Skim is nice...to bad it doesn't read epub/mobi
posted by Spumante at 4:52 AM on March 28, 2014