[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Dabcar

Tex2002ans, your question about what version of EPUB-Checker made me check out updates. I have now updated it, and EPUB-Checker has changed it's Validation to "EPUB version 3.2 rules, and now there are "no errors or warnings detected. EPUB is valid!"

So "EPUB-Checker", you actually mean epubcheck:

https://github.com/w3c/epubcheck/releases

the commandline tool?

(PS. And yuck, when the heck did they change the capitalization to "EPUBCheck"?)

And be aware, while EPUB3.2 is supposed to be backwards compatible with EPUB3.0.1, the reality is that the vast majority of the readers out there that aren't following the latest/greatest specs.

Originally Posted by Dabcar

However, your comment, Tex2002ans, about the need to gracefully fallback and work better across a variety of readers does concern me.

Yep, and that's the thing too... sometimes the latest specs sadly do not match the reality of the actual devices out there... so depending on where you're selling, you have to take into account LOTS of different (old) renderers.

Two examples:

InDesign's "Export > EPUB3" likes to focus on creating iBooks-focused code, but there are plenty of non-iBooks EPUB3 readers, (and even within the Apple ecosystem, lots of older/buggier iBooks versions [iPad 1s floating around]).

ADE 4.5 is the latest, and may display your book okay, but many older devices have an embedded RMDSK that's ~ADE 2.0.

Originally Posted by Dabcar

I also used the FlightDeck service to check it, and it says Apple doesn't like the endnotes and endnote declarations (even though in tests they work fine in Apple's Books app on my Mac.

iBooks on Mac =/= iBooks on iOS... but I'm no expert (I refuse to mess with Apple's rotten/locked-in ecosystem).

But to my knowledge, the most well-supported type is epub:type="footnote".

But someone with more Apple-centric knowledge might be able to jump in and correct me.

Originally Posted by Dabcar

Concerning using the<ul> list, they are not mammoth (the largest is around 20), as, according to everything I've read here and elsewhere including books, it's best to use HTML properly.

You have to also remember, HTML =/= EPUB.

While EPUB3 (and 3.2) is trying to merge much closer to the overall HTML5 ecosystem, there are still a lot of backwards compatibility, older devices, non-updated and not perfectly spec-compliant readers out there.

I still think it's best to design an EPUB3 that has EPUB2 (and older reader) fallbacks.

For example, <ul> leads to a lot of potential formatting issues in older versions of ADE/RMSDK, and trying to use complicated CSS to override the defaults may fail miserably.

To read more on the topic, see the 2016 topic "Epub3 Foot- End-notes", especially my Post #39+ where I disuses the disadvantages of <ol> (and similar).

Also, there are other readers (such as Kindle and Calibre) which may rely on heuristics to "detect footnotes". Using funky code may break that functionality.

(I'm unsure of how Kindle deals with epub:type endnote/footnote ... I personally don't use much EPUB3 as input... and quality technical research is hard to come by.)

Originally Posted by Dabcar

Another reason for going for the list (or even p or div tags)instead of wrapping each footnote in an aside tag was that I read in these forums that this stops iBooks from using its pop-up feature.

Hmmm... strange. Mind pointing me to those posts?

And which version of iBooks are you using? (And is it Mac or iOS?)

Originally Posted by Dabcar

I haven't seen footnotes used in a list before, but, to me, it is logical.

It's also good to keep in mind much larger-picture issues. Something that may work and look pretty on (latest version of) iBooks, may not work on all the other readers out there.

Better to design a book that works across a broad spectrum, than one that has to be tweaked/updated/adjusted for each platform.

For more info, see one of my favorite talks from last year's Ebookcraft 2019, "Building Ebooks that Last". One of the key points she explains is it's best to KISS, and to aim towards markup that works and remains readable even without CSS (who knows WHAT device/app end-users are going to be reading on... and many override your CSS).

Originally Posted by Dabcar

Thanks for the responses. Any advice is welcome. It's a long time since I put together an ebook and things have moved on quite a bit.

And welcome to MobileRead, I see this was one of your first posts. Glad to have you on board.