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Originally Posted by HarryT
That's very good news. Note, though, that it's describing ePub as a working format " from which any e-book delivery format can be rendered". That's what makes me rather doubt that any quick end to "eBabel" is in sight - there are still going to be a variety of "terminal formats" created by publishers and some devices will support one, others another.
This usage is similar to the way that the older OEB (Open EBook) standard was used, to create terminal formats such as LIT and Mobi.
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yes, that is a good point ; but i have to wonder whether they weren't just saying that to cover all their bases, so to speak ; after all, to my knowledge, the OEB standard (although similar to epub in structure) could *only* be used as a working format (i could be wrong, but i don't know of any device / application which can "read" OEB directly). but so far, the publishers who are visibly using epub seem *not* to be converting it ; more and more publishers are now offering epub files directly to the end user, and more and more devices are supporting it natively. this would seem to confirm the trend towards standardisation on epub as a
terminal format, not just a working format. and obviously the more enthusiasm there is for it, the faster that will happen.
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If more publishers do start using ePub as a working format from which to create their various reading formats, however, the end result must inevitably be an improvement in the quality and consistency of those reading formats, so everybody will benefit from that. That's why I'm pleased to read this announcement.
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that is another advantage, you're right. but as i say, i get the impression that epub is destined primarily as a format in and of itself. but it certainly doesn't hurt that it can also be converted into any other format.