Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertDDL
I've mentioned LibreOffice here as proof that a TOC can be generated on the fly by parsing a HTML file for header tags. I simply wish that my ebook reader and some lightweight e-book reading software on my PC could do the same -- I just don't see the need for a separate TOC. I still don't understand the benefits of having NCX and OPF, but I stand corrected by all of you that the problem isn't the complexity of ePub, but just my indolence  |
I do agree that NCX is probably more complicated than it should be but an external TOC is necessary on many books. The format was a compromise with DAISY. In ePub 3 the format of this important file was changed to be HTML like the format for files. Thus there is now no need to learn a different format, although NCX did provide a method to identify page numbers which could be useful.
OPF on the other hand is essential to capture the metadata. Pure HTML provides syntax but not semantics. Even in HTML there was the header section which was always more complicated in that there wasn't really much of a standard to identify anything but the simplest metadata but for multiple files it didn't make much sense to repeat this stuff so collecting it in a different file is useful. It is a small file that can be opened at any time to present data for the user. It can even provide the description of the contents used to sell the book. It is also useful to provide some integrity, not available in HTML where the full list of files is shown so that if a file is missing you would know it.
Dale