Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
Now you've lost me. Or maybe I've lost it.   ... <snip--too many blinky eyeballs, thought I would develop flicker vertigo--H>...
As you so wisely point out, we already have that right now.
And it still doesn't stop authors from putting absolute garbage in there. Even though the correct metadata fields are staring them in the face and waving little red and green flags.
Adding more metadata fields to the exact same, pre-existing UI is not going to make them use the new fields, any more than it will stop them from ignoring the old ones! |
@eschwartz:
You don't get it. As near as I can tell, what he's proposing is either an editor (standalone) or an app/program that's a browser-based SAAS, that will have all these fields that MUST BE completed. In other words, the app does extensive error-checking, so you're forced into filling it out.
My inference from everything he's said is that he's picturing something like Bookalope or one of the others. You're stepped through the pages, through the attributes, etc. (Of course, having used several of these browser-based programs, I can tell you that means that it will take ages to complete a book.)
Then, the PROGRAM creates this XML output file, which looks like, well, an XML file. Then the DEVICES interpret how the reader (human) wants the book to look. Somehow, the end user (omg...) programs/sets the device so that they see the paragraphs the way they want, the epigraphs the way they want, etc.
As a commercial maker of books, I just see this as a nightmare. I can barely restrain the authors NOW. I have an exercise book in now, with 450+ images, that we've just remade for the nth time, because--wait for it--our final (*ha) eBook files don't resemble the print book enough.
This is a heavily programmatic way to look at a book. The time for this format has come and gone. 10 years ago, people might have been willing to consider this--back when MOBI was mostly unheard-of, before ePUB had been regularized, etc. But now--now that they are all used to being able to upload a Word file almost everywhere, and PFM, make an eBook--it's not going to happen.
His idea that you'd be FORCED to fill in the metadata fields--sort of ePUBcheck upfront (hell, maybe we could install ZAPPERS!!! You try to ignore something like, "nationality of author" metadata, and you're lightly electrocuted), just makes my head hurt. The reality is, this poster is rather OCD. He wants to force everyone else to submit to what HE thinks is "important" in eBooks, instead of adapting his views--or, for that matter, tweaking the books to suit what HE wants. We've all said, 50x, that he can add whatever goddamned metadata he wants, to ePUB, and he's roundly ignoring us.
So, really, kids: I guess the problem is, the forums are slow, and we don't have anything better to do, so we keep playing in this particular sandbox, is that it?
Hitch