Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
So yet again, I want to know -- what actual problems do you think need to be solved, and how do you intend to solve them?
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1. The important metadata are stored in EPUBs in plain text format, and some cannot be stored at all.
The solution: store the metadata in XML format with a defined set of fields: (Name;Surname;UUID;etc); (Series;#); (Genre;Sub-genre;Sub-sub-genre;etc). The metadata come from a list which is designed for books, unlike DC.
2. The underlying HTML/CSS code is not standardized, and allows partial implementation of its features. There is no way to predict what the user's device is going to support.
The solution: the exhaustive XML semantic format, in which each part of a book format has one and only one possible representation. Physical formatting (CSS) is separate from logical formatting (elements used).
The device is free to apply any needed transformations based on the semantic content to achieve the supported output. No longer books are set of paragraphs, divs and spans with no semantic role and opaque formatting. Example: in HTML, you cannot be sure what does the paragraph style "SJ8M" (left margin, top margin, no break, italics, 80% size) is intended to do, and you cannot adjust the presentation if you do not support CSS features from the above list. With XML, it is clear that it is 'epigraph/p', and you can use any methods you support to format it according to your internal stylesheet combined with book and user stylesheets.
3. Using browsers to display the raw HTML means working around the renderers' quirks and compatibility issues.
The solution: XML is free of preconceptions about the physical format necessary in WWW.
I believe it is evident why a custom XML format yields better results for 95% of fiction and non-fiction EBooks than EPUB.