Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
On GitHub, an issue can be closed as a duplicate, on MobileRead a thread can be closed or merged...
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And
who will close/merge it? This Marvin subforum supposedly has moderators, but it appears they haven't been seen here for years.
If Kris appoints me to be the moderator/manager/whatever of
Marvin's GitHub, I'll be happy to take on that task. Of course, in close cooperation with Kris, but so that I only bother him when it's absolutely necessary. That would certainly be a
better solution than completely abandoning GitHub, which appears to be happening right now. I can see quite a few helpful GitHub posters who could be moderators/managers on GitHub along with, or instead of me. (They are certainly none of the MobileRead regulars; serious posters don't really have time for the mess that MobileRead is.)
So, no worries, guys. I have zero interest in being the moderator here on MobileRead. It's bad enough to have to read/ignore all the infernal trolls around here, but
moderating them?
Not me, thanks a lot!
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
if people continue to post mentions in other threads or issues, what do you do?
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You courteously remind them that there's a dedicated thread already open for that particular issue, and you point them to that thread with a specific, clickable link. That's standard moderators' work. (And I
have worked as moderator in the past, and got paid for it, believe it or not. Precisely because I have experience with these things, I can see that MobileRead forums are beyond repair; certainly the Marvin subsection.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
The fact that you continue to insist you believe in the "one issue per thread" paradigm, while at the same time going ahead and posting comments to irrelevant threads (e.g. this one here)
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It's
not an irrelevant thread at all. Re-read the opening post of this thread: it talks about page-numbering in Marvin, claiming that it's "fixed". Because it is
not fixed in any sense of the word, I reacted to the opening post with exactly 5 lines of text, making them as brief as possible, courteously asking Kris for a remedy. (
And posting those specific links to earlier threads, so that no further duplication arises.) That is
standard, and that
must be allowed. Then you guys went berserk, as usual, cementing MobileRead's status as a totally useless venue for serious software discussions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
page numbers do need to be constant so they do not change when you change settings
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What a laughable, ridiculous claim. That's Jon inside his ADE bubble again.
Jon, it's OK for you to be an Adobe fan. But please understand that not all human beings on this planet are exactly just like you, and that not everyone is ready to die on the spot for Adobe.
I consider page-numbers in e-books crucial, but I claim the exact opposite of what you've just said above: page numbers
must not be constant when you change settings or your reading device. They must adapt to the
current settings and current reading device, just like page-numbering in printed books adapts to the current format (paperback, hard-cover, whatever).
The solution for Kris and Marvin, as has been mentioned many times, is very easy (conceptually): give every Marvin user the option to select whatever page-numbering scheme he or she prefers. Jon would select ADE; I would select pages=screens (which
already is in Marvin, but – inexplicably and outrageously
inconsistently – only for "pages in
chapters"); other Marvin users might stick with Marvin's current (outlandish) "pages" scheme; and still other users, like eschwartz, would disable the display of page numbers altogether.
That way,
everyone will be satisfied.
So, let's join forces, guys and gals, and let's jointly appeal to Kris to implement this solution, because it truly satisfies the needs of
all Marvin users.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Given Marvin's way of offering choices, if anyone can come up with other page numbers that would work, add them in too and give us a choice of which we want to use.
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That is the best statement, Jon, you've posted to MobileRead over the last 10 years.
I'm so moved and pleasantly surprised I could weep.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
A % doesn't work. You don't know how long you have left if you are 40% into the book.
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Correct.
That is exactly why we
do need page numbers in e-books. We just differ in our page-numbering concepts, Jon, that's all. You prefer ADE, while I prefer pages=screens, but that's fine. To each their own, right?
So, all that needs to be done is to persuade Kris to give us this freedom of choice you and I talk about.
By the way, %
does work for other purposes, such as for cross-platform reference purposes. You prefer to use ADE pages for that, while I very much favor the "% inside the text" metric – with 4 digits for increased precision (72.46%).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turtle91
Attached is a screenshot - notice the page numbers at the bottom.
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They (if you instruct Marvin to display "pages in
book", which is what this debate is all about) are
not page numbers at all – merely Marvin's ill-chosen imitation of page numbers. Unacceptable to me – a truly inferior solution, and an unnecessary invention. If we're going for
fake pages, there already is ADE. Why go for yet
another type of
fake pages?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turtle91
Yes it is only pages of that chapter because it's quite pointless (and time consuming) to calculate that number for chapters that aren't open yet.
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You're kidding, Turtle, right? We have gigabytes of RAM on our reading-devices, but it's "time-consuming" to calculate how many pages an e-book has?
Now that's a good one.
And it's not pointless
at all. In fact, it's very likely the most crucial metric that most readers (who aren't MobileRead geeks) are interested in: "How many pages do I have to go until I finish this book?" Don't get me wrong: I also find the "pages in
chapter" metric essential, but compared to "pages in
book", it's definitely a
secondary metric.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turtle91
The exact number of pages remaining in the book really doesn't mean anything until you're on the last chapter anyway.
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Oh,
really?
You forgot to insert "to me" in your sentence. To me, seeing the exact number of pages to go (
both in current chapter
and in the book) means a
lot. I find it
essential, and it was one of the Marvin 2 weaknesses, to me, that no such metric ("pages in book") was offered by it. So, I was initially ecstatic when the Marvin 3 announcement came out: "Page numbers, here we come!" All the greater
shock and disappointment, after it became obvious what a sad travesty Marvin's current implementation of "page" numbers is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turtle91
Percentage is exactly right for every book... If I've read 40%, then I have 60% left to go...
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But sometimes, zero decimals is
not enough. In
large e-books (say, corresponding to 1000-page printed books), a single percentage may stretch over 10 or 15 iPad screens (and dozens of iPhone screens!).
Therefore, Marvin should give us the
option to use 0, 1, or 2 decimals for the "percentage read" metric. (Zero can remain the default as it is now.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turtle91
How many screen flips is that?? Who Cares?!?!
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Pretty much
everyone who's not a MobileRead geek. You can bet on
that.