Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
You might want to take a look at the structure of an ebook. For example, the epub container is a renamed .zip file -- locating a specific piece of text in it is going to require unpacking the container and rendering the contained text files as text. One of the reasons that most ereaders copy the text out of the ebook into an annotations file/database entry/whatever instead of trying to link directly to the text in the ebook is that it is simply easier.
It's not a matter of arrogance but rather the realization that what you want would involve having to be able to open every ebook format handled by calibre (which calibre itself does not do -- the ebook viewer does an on the fly conversion and displays the converted file), adding the ability to create a link to a file within the container and to a specific location/length of the compressed text within that file. This would also require the application (Hook) to be able to open that compressed file and use the link to locate and extract the text.
The task is probably doable. Now you need to find someone who is interested in doing the required programming, be willing to pay enough to make it worthwhile to spend time on the task (even programmers have to eat, pay rent, etc.).
TANSTAAFL.
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Many thanks, @DNSB, both for the very informative reply, and for its constructive, friendly tone. If Kovid is right, and Calibre is the most used e-reader application, and, additionally, if about 10% of those users have macOS machines, probably there would be enough people to contribute to some crowdfunding for the endeavour you described.
However, I guess, there are two reasons why we cannot start with it just now:
- Apple is about to release a new OS, and it is yet unclear, how determined they are from excluding smaller companies developing for their platform
- All major e-bookshops, especially Amazon, are in the business of using more and more tight DRM-locks, to bind readers exclusively to them; as long as there is no major e-book dealer (in various languages, not only English) to offer an alternative to Amazon and its likes, I guess many potential donors in crowdfunding will rather sit on the fence and wait for more stable times.
Still, longer-term, your proposal @DNSB, might be feasible also financially, I guess. As point 2 above is of interest to all readers on any platform, and as Calibre runs already both in Windows and macOS, it might be an idea to have a parallel development for both platforms. That way, the crowdfunding exercise will become a much easier affair.
By the way, does anybody know what is a more precise number of Calibre users on Windows, and on macOS, respectively?