I find that an epub should work perfectly without these lines of code.
HTML can, why MUST epub have an author or a title?
What if the Author does not want to put his name there?
About trimming, I can do in HTML what I can do in epub,only 3 times smaller.
I find a lot of the coding of epubs inefficient. Repeating twice the same thing, needing lengthy tags to define something, and especially the hex strings on the navpoint ID's I find useless.
The only purpose it serves is have nice hyperlinks and background scanning, and database sorting capabilities. It serves a purpose somewhere I suppose, but I don't think it should automatically be a necessary part of the code.
It reminds me of Windows Vista, compared to Windows XP/98. Windows 98/XP just do what need to be done. Windows Vista is a memory and power hog, that consumes power, and does unnecessary things in the background to optimize time and reduce latency, to compensate for the time it loses doing those unnecessary thins in the first place.
If I can do something simple in HTML, why make it complex in epub?
Why not make ePub compatible with HTML, and leave it simple where it needs to be simple?
Like, this would be a nice toc for me:
Code:
<title>Table of contents</title>
[1:"Chapter 1"]link/to/1st.document[/1]
[2:"Chapter 2"]link/to/2nd.document[/2]
[3:"Chapter 3"]link/to/3rd.document[/3]
[4:"Chapter 4"]link/to/4th.document[/4]
[5:"Chapter 5"]link/to/5th.document[/5]
Would be an example of a very efficient code that automatically assumes first document is first to be displayed in the book, is called "chapter 1",and knows the location of that chapter.
now compare that to this:
Code:
<ncx version="1"
xml:lang="en">
<head>
content="95e823ba-8f88-4c44-9f9d-b22ff04d5358" />
</head>
<docTitle>
<text>Table of Contents</text>
</docTitle>
<navMap>
<navPoint id="d362620c-c3f8-45e2-8e63-2a62a2757f81"
playOrder="1">
<navLabel>
<text>Book title</text>
</navLabel>
<content src="content/CompleteA_revised_split_0.html" />
</navPoint>
<navPoint id="5809ab0e-a3b1-446b-b4d8-ad487a1e546b"
playOrder="2">
<navLabel>
<text>Chapter</text>
</navLabel>
<content src="content/CompleteA_revised_split_2.html" />
<navPoint id="1c4e5abf-96dd-42a3-9604-0936f9c535e0"
playOrder="3">
<navLabel>
<text>Chapter 1</text>
</navLabel>
<content src="content/CompleteA_revised_split_2.html" />
</navPoint>
<navPoint id="4e14c23c-a836-414f-850f-ce1484f98b4a"
playOrder="4">
<navLabel>
<text>Chapter 2</text>
</navLabel>
<content src="content/CompleteA_revised_split_3.html" />
</navPoint>
<navPoint id="bd77b9a0-c3f9-400e-b36c-290f896ac923"
playOrder="5">
<navLabel>
<text>Chapter 3</text>
</navLabel>
<content src="content/CompleteA_revised_split_4.html" />
</navPoint>
Looking at the very basics, it's saying the same thing;and in an ebook reader both can be showing exactly the same on the screen; namely, that I want it to display a toc directing to the first 5 chapters; and use that toc to play back chapter 5 after 4 after 3 after 2 after 1, after the toc. But see the amount of code that's been implemented to reach to such result in current version epub!
Trimming code may not make a lot of sense for regular books, but it does for bibles, and dictionaries,and encyclopedia's with tons of chapters, pages, and reference notes.