Quote:
And I guess my counter point is that just because something can be made to serve a particular function doesn't establish its legitimacy to serve that purpose.
If the definition of whether something is legitimately an e-book format is based solely upon whether it can be used that way ... then a hammer is a legitimate screw-driver (more people have done this than will likely admit to it ), and MacGyver was a legitimate nuclear engineer because he could fix a fission reactor with a chewing gum wrapper and a length of surgical tubing.
|
My counter point would be that PDF never had to be forced into service as an ebook format. It's an electronic document format, and an ebook is an electronic document.
The debate seems to be about the purpose of an ebook. Is PDF not a valid format because there are all sorts of things you can't do with it? There are all sorts of things you can't do, or do well, with anything that has a primary purpose. In my view, the comparison with using a hammer as a screwdriver misses that point. Using PDF for an ebook, an digital document, is using it precisely for what it's meant for and good for---to print a document---whether it's printing to paper or to screen---in the best, most readable format. I'm less satisfied with general-purpose formats that don't do that primary thing as well. What is a general-purpose ebook format, after all? Something like a hammer that you can also drive nails [edit---I mean, drive screws] with and who knows what else?