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chore: Clarify project scope and development priorities (#2149)

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Expand scope to support multiple e-ink devices beyond X4. Add guiding
principle to fill gaps in stock firmware rather than duplicate
functionality. Establish current focus on memory/flash optimization and
code cleanup. Temporarily freeze new themes and network connectors to
consolidate codebase before multi-device expansion.
This commit is contained in:
Justin Mitchell
2026-07-20 16:02:02 -04:00
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SCOPE.md
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# Project Vision & Scope: CrossPoint Reader
The goal of CrossPoint Reader is to create an efficient, open-source reading experience for the Xteink X4. We believe a
dedicated e-reader should do one thing exceptionally well: **facilitate focused reading.**
The goal of CrossPoint Reader is to create an efficient, open-source reading experience for ESP32-based e-reader
devices. Xteink hardware (X3, X4) is where the project started and remains a primary target, but CrossPoint is
explicitly broadening to support the wider ecosystem of small ESP32 e-ink readers. We believe a dedicated e-reader
should do one thing exceptionally well: **facilitate focused reading.**
## 1. Core Mission
To provide a lightweight, high-performance firmware that maximizes the potential of the X4, prioritizing legibility and
usability over "swiss-army-knife" functionality.
To provide a lightweight, high-performance firmware that maximizes the potential of ESP32-based e-reader hardware,
prioritizing legibility, performance, and usability over "swiss-army-knife" functionality.
## 2. Scope
CrossPoint is **not** a kitchen-sink firmware, and it is **not** Xteink-only. We want clean, maintainable code that
the community can build on, and that runs across the range of ESP32 e-reader devices (ESP32-C3, ESP32-S3, and
adjacent variants). Every accepted change should make that goal easier, not harder. Device-specific code should live
behind the HAL / SDK boundary so the reader core stays portable.
## 2. Guiding Principle: Fill Gaps the Stock Firmware Leaves
CrossPoint exists to do the things the stock firmware does poorly or not at all. New work is evaluated against that
delineator:
* **Does the stock firmware already do this well?** If yes, we will not duplicate it.
* **Is another popular CrossPoint fork already solving this well?** If yes, we generally defer to that fork rather than
fragmenting the ecosystem.
* **Does this directly improve the reading experience or the firmware's long-term maintainability?** If no, it is out
of scope.
### Language Priority
English is the priority language for new features and UI work. Other languages are considered, with preference given
to cases where the stock firmware fails (rendering, input, fonts, layout) or where existing CrossPoint forks have not
addressed the gap.
## 3. Current Focus (Until Further Notice)
We are intentionally narrowing scope to consolidate the codebase as we open it up to more ESP32 e-reader devices.
During this period, the priorities are:
* **Memory footprint:** Reducing DRAM usage and heap fragmentation. The ESP32-C3 is the tightest target and sets the
ceiling, but the gains benefit every ESP32 variant we run on.
* **Flash footprint:** Trimming binary size to leave room for additional device targets and features.
* **Code cleanup:** Refactoring, removing dead code, tightening abstractions, and improving readability.
* **Reading experience:** EPUB parsing and rendering, typography, hyphenation, line spacing, font handling, and
legibility improvements.
### Temporarily Closed Areas
PRs in the following areas will be closed until this notice is lifted. Adding these now makes the cleanup and
multi-device work materially harder:
* **New themes.** The existing theming surface is frozen.
* **New external network connectors.** This includes sync engines, cloud storage clients, OPDS extensions beyond what
exists, remote file access, and any new "talk to a server" feature.
If you are unsure whether your idea falls into one of these categories, open a Discussion first.
## 4. Scope
### In-Scope
*These are features that directly improve the primary purpose of the device.*
*Features that directly improve the core reading experience or the firmware's maintainability.*
* **User Experience:** E.g. User-friendly interfaces, and interactions, both inside the reader and navigating the
firmware. This includes things like button mapping, book loading, and book navigation like bookmarks.
* **Document Rendering:** E.g. Support for rendering documents (primarily EPUB) and improvements to the rendering
engine.
* **Format Optimization:** E.g. Efficiently parsing EPUB (CSS/Images) and other documents within the device's
capabilities.
* **Typography & Legibility:** E.g. Custom font support, hyphenation engines, and adjustable line spacing.
* **E-Ink Driver Refinement:** E.g. Reducing full-screen flashes (ghosting management) and improving general rendering.
* **Library Management:** E.g. Simple, intuitive ways to organize and navigate a collection of books.
* **Local Transfer:** E.g. Simple, "pull" based book loading via a basic web-server or public and widely-used standards.
* **Language Support:** E.g. Support for multiple languages both in the reader and in the interfaces.
* **Reference Tools:** E.g. Local dictionary lookup. Providing quick, offline definitions to enhance comprehension
without breaking focus.
* **Clock Display (device dependent):**
| Device | Scope |
| -- | -- |
| X3 | The X3 uses a dedicated DS3231 RTC, which maintains accurate time across sleep cycles and can be treated as a reliable wall clock. |
| X4 | The X4 relies on the ESP32-C3's internal RTC, which drifts significantly during deep sleep. NTP sync could correct this, with an appropriate user experience around connecting to the internet on wake or on demand. This causes some tension with the **Active Connectivity** section below, so please open a discussion about this UX if it's a feature you would find useful. |
* **EPUB Rendering & Optimization:** Improvements to the rendering engine, CSS/image handling, and parsing
performance.
* **Typography & Legibility:** Custom font support, hyphenation, line and paragraph spacing, margins.
* **E-Ink Driver Refinement:** Reducing full-screen flashes (ghosting management) and improving general rendering.
* **Reading UX:** Bookmarks, progress tracking, button mapping, page navigation, and other in-reader interactions.
* **Library Management:** Simple, intuitive ways to organize and navigate a local book collection.
* **Local Transfer:** Simple, pull-based loading via the existing web server or widely used standards. New connectors
are currently paused (see Section 3).
* **Reference Tools:** Local, offline dictionary lookup.
* **Memory, Flash, and Code Quality:** Refactors and cleanups that reduce resource use or improve maintainability,
even without a user-visible feature.
### Out-of-Scope
*These items are rejected because they compromise the device's stability or mission.*
*Rejected because they compromise the device's stability, maintainability, or core mission.*
* **Interactive Apps:** No Notepads, Calculators, or Games. This is a reader, not a PDA.
* **Active Connectivity:** No RSS readers, News aggregators, or Web browsers. Background Wi-Fi tasks drain the battery
and complicate the single-core CPU's execution.
* **Media Playback:** No Audio players or Audio-books.
* **Complex Annotation:** No typed out notes. These features are better suited for devices with better input
capabilities and more powerful chips.
* **Interactive Apps:** No notepads, calculators, or games. These belong in other forks and are not part of
CrossPoint's focus.
* **Writing / Authoring Tools:** No typed notes, journals, or editors. Input hardware and RAM are wrong for this, and
other forks already explore this space.
* **Active Connectivity:** No RSS readers, news aggregators, or web browsers. Background Wi-Fi drains the battery and
complicates the single-core CPU.
* **Media Playback:** No audio players or audiobooks.
* **Complex Annotation:** No typed-out notes.
* **Duplication of stock firmware behavior** that already works well.
* **PDF Rendering:** PDFs are fixed-layout documents, so rendering them requires displaying pages as images rather
than reflowable text, resulting in constant panning and zooming that makes for a poor reading experience on e-ink.
Out of scope on the current hardware class.
### In-scope — Technically Unsupported
## 5. Idea Evaluation
*These features align with CrossPoint's goals but are impractical on the current hardware or produce poor UX.*
Before proposing a feature, ask:
* **PDF Rendering:** PDFs are fixed-layout documents, so rendering them requires displaying pages as images rather than reflowable text — resulting in constant panning and zooming that makes for a poor reading experience on e-ink.
1. Does the stock firmware already handle this well? We should hit that bar or surpass it.
2. Does another popular CrossPoint fork already handle this well? If yes, we usually defer.
3. Does it improve the core reading experience, or reduce memory / flash / code complexity?
4. Is it in one of the temporarily closed areas (new themes, new network connectors)? If yes, wait.
5. Would adding it make the codebase harder to clean up or harder to port to other devices? If yes, rework or defer.
## 3. Idea Evaluation
If the idea passes those filters, it is a candidate. If you are not sure, open a **Discussion** before writing any
code.
While I appreciate the desire to add new and exciting features to CrossPoint Reader, CrossPoint Reader is designed to be
a lightweight, reliable, and performant e-reader. Things which distract or compromise the device's core mission will not
be accepted. As a guiding question, consider if your idea improve the "core reading experience" for the average user,
and, critically, not distract from that reading experience.
> **Note to Contributors:** CrossPoint is intentionally narrow. "It would be cool if..." features are not enough; the
> bar is "this fixes something the stock firmware does poorly, or it makes the firmware leaner and easier to maintain."
> **Note to Contributors:** If you are unsure if your idea fits the scope, please open a **Discussion** before you start
> coding!
## 6. Calls to Action
These are the areas where contributor help is most valuable right now. If you want to take one of these on, open a
Discussion or issue first so we can coordinate.
### Theme System: Move Themes Off-Firmware
We want to abstract themes out of the firmware entirely so they no longer consume flash, and instead load from the SD
card. This directly supports the current focus on flash footprint and code cleanup.
* **Status:** [@itsthisjustin](https://github.com/itsthisjustin) plans to take this on eventually but is very open to
someone else claiming it sooner.
* **Why it matters:** Every built-in theme costs flash that we would rather spend on rendering, fonts, or future
device support. SD-loaded themes also let users customize without rebuilding firmware.
* **How to claim:** Comment on the relevant Discussion (or open one) before starting.
### SDK Abstraction: Generalize the Lower Layers for All ESP32 E-Readers
To support the broader range of ESP32-based e-reader hardware, the SDK layers (display, input, storage, battery,
etc.) need to be abstracted away from Xteink-specific assumptions and made pluggable per device.
* **Status:** [@itsthisjustin](https://github.com/itsthisjustin) is actively working on this.
* **How to help:** Coordinate with itsthisjustin before opening PRs that touch `freeink-sdk/` or `lib/hal/` so the
work does not collide. Smaller adjacent cleanups (removing hardcoded assumptions, tightening HAL boundaries) are
welcome if scoped against the in-flight direction.
### Identifying Other Stock-Firmware Gaps
We want help cataloguing things the stock firmware (and other popular CrossPoint forks) handle poorly or not at all,
so future work has a clear target list. Particularly interested in:
* **RTL (right-to-left) text support:** Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and similar scripts.
* **Languages with poor stock and fork coverage:** Especially those that need shaping, complex layout, or
non-Latin font work that nobody is handling well today.
* **Other gaps:** Rendering edge cases, accessibility issues, input quirks, anything stock does badly and existing
forks have not fixed.
* **Status:** [@uxjulia](https://github.com/uxjulia) is coordinating this effort.
If you can read or use the device in one of these languages, your feedback (even without code) is genuinely useful.
Open a Discussion with concrete examples (screenshots, sample EPUBs, expected vs actual behavior) and we will
prioritize from there.
## 7. Funding and Contributor Sustainability
CrossPoint uses [Royalty.dev](https://royalty.dev) (yes, a product built by [@itsthisjustin](https://github.com/itsthisjustin))
to fund contributors. There has been some tension in the community around this, so the intent is being clarified
here directly.
**Why we do this:**
* To maintain long-term interest from contributors and maintainers, in direct response to substantial community
requests for a way to give back.
* To motivate contributors to invest in the *core* project rather than spinning up competing forks.
* To help pay for new ESP32 devices so we can port CrossPoint to additional hardware.
* To give the project a credible long-term path to sustainability.
**How it works:**
* Funds are distributed automatically to contributors based on impact to the codebase and tenure on the project.
* Over **$600** was raised in the first few days after opening up funding, which is a signal the demand is real.
* The exact scoring methodology is published at <https://app.royalty.dev/transparency>.
**This is not fixed in stone.** The weighting, eligibility, and distribution rules can be tweaked as we learn what
works for this project. If you have concerns or suggestions about how funds are allocated, open a Discussion. The
goal is a system that fairly recognizes the people doing the work, not a perfect one on day one.