Quote:
Originally Posted by Rev. Bob
Yet. Surely I'm not the only person here who remembers what a hassle the Y2K problem was, or who had to stop using software because it didn't get fixed? Every dead, antiquated program that exists was once cutting-edge...
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That's not a problem with file formats. Software is not file formats. And those programs, for the most part, would still
run, they would just run wrong. The file formats are out there, and aren't going away. And the covnersions aren't that hard to figure out.
(I did Y2K prep for my job. On mission critical systems, like cash registers. Either stuff works, or we're out of business. I found about 99.9999999% of the nonsense put out about Y2K to be hysterical bullshit, peddled by somebody selling a book. "Give me money or your children will be eaten by dingos." Yawn.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rev. Bob
Correction: WE can get by with converters. Joe Averageguy, though? Grampa Oltimer? They need readers.
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Apparently, you have never used Calibre. yes, Joe Averageguy, Grandpa Oldtimer, and pretty much everybody else can handle Calibre. Really. I could teach a cat how to use Calibre, if I could find one interested in ebooks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rev. Bob
Have you seen the horrible stuff that gets passed off as valid code? Oh, it validates, but it's also sloppy and bloated as hell - and one of the books I bought this weekend is guilty of it. Smart writer, probably a good book, but here's a random sample of the code (which is exactly as I downloaded it, but with text removed to protect the author):
Code:
<body class="calibre">
<p class="calibre1"><span class="calibre6"><span class="calibre3">Chapter 5</span></span></p>
<p class="calibre1"><span class="calibre7"><span class="italic"><span class="calibre3">Chapter Title</span></span></span></p>
<p class="calibre8"><span class="calibre3">First paragraph.</span></p>
Here's how that could look, just cleaning up the HTML and not touching any CSS:
Code:
<body class="calibre calibre3">
<p class="calibre1 calibre6">Chapter 5</p>
<p class="calibre1 calibre7 italic">Chapter Title</p>
<p class="calibre8">First paragraph.</p>
Let me emphasize that I didn't pass the book through a converter; my copy of Calibre never touched it... |
So, you're saying Calibre isn't good enough for conversions, because
you didn't use it? Really? Seriously? You're blaming Calibre for something you acknowledge
it didn't do?
I have a nook color, and buy nearly all by books from B&N. I routinely run books
from the manufacturer of my device through Calibre's EPUB to EPUB conversion, optomized for my specific device (not supported by B&N any more already), for the very reason you mention. I've had two books so far (well, five, really, one was an omnibus of four books) that I
had to for them to be readable at all.
But that's not a file format problem. Nor is it an obsolecence problem.
And it's a hell of a lot easier to fix than a badly printe paper book. I can fix a broken EPUB myself. A paper book with, say, missing or out of order pages, or smeared ink, or some other problem that's just incompetence on the part of the publisher, I'm out of luck.
I've never had pages fall out of an ebook. And I never will.
I've never had the cover come off an ebook. And I never will. (And even if I did, I could easily replace it with one I like better anyway.)
I've never had high-acid paper turn brown and crumble when I touch it with an ebook. And I never will.
I've never lost an ebook because I don't have the time, space or money to keep archival copies. And I never will.
I've never lost my place in an ebook because the book mark fell out. And I never will.
The bottom line is that an ebook library is a
lot easier to maintain than a paper book library, in terms of time, money, trouble and necessary expertise. And making archival copies are orders of magnitude easier on every count than even the simple maintence.