[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I know some people are fans of epub3, evangelists for it, but:
1) Only a subset of Javascript works on epub3.

How do you know that if you never used javascript?

2) Only a tiny number of apps fully support epub3

That's not true. All apps and programs that support epub3, they support javascript.

3) The majority of physical ereaders have very little or no epub3 support.

They are not readers for epub3 and here we are speaking about epub3. But are you saying, for example, that tablets based on e-ink, where you can load any android app that support epub3 (for example, PocketBook, Reasily, Gitden Reader, Aldiko Next, Lithium, BlueFire -an extraordinary app-, etc., etc.) are not physical ereaders? You are living only in the world of Kindle and Kobo but there is live beyond them.

4) The majority of physical ereaders (inc Kindle) have little or no javascript support.

As I said, here we are speaking about epub3. Read my previous answer.

5) A real ebook doesn't need any Javascript shouldn't use any.

As you don't know anything about epub3 and javascript. then you shouldn't speak about what you don't know. Try to get the following layout with an epub2:



with a bigger font-size:



You won't be able. And no matter the user change the font-size, the layout is maintained by the script. Below anyone can check the respective epub3 with the respective script to get that layout. The possibilities of epub2 to work with poetry are very poor compared with epub3 plus javascript.

Poetry Test.epub

And try to get with an epub2 the following animations usefull in children's books:

Text Animations.epub

And watch the following .xhtml code:

<h1>TITULUS*HIC*EST</h1>

<p class="start">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla ac tellus nunc. Phasellus imperdiet leo metus, et gravida lacus. Donec metus ligula, elementum at pellentesque pellentesque, suscipit ac nunc. Etiam lobortis, massa ac aliquam auctor, augue nisl sagittis urna, at dapibus tellus erat ullamcorper ligula. Praesent orci dui, pulvinar id convallis a, faucibus non mauris.</p>

How can you give that specific code the following format (under epub2)?



Under epub2, you should have to add a lot of additional code to get something similar. In the epub3 I attach below, you can see how easy is to get those effects with javascript.

nthEverything Test.epub

Of course, I'm not writting all this to try to convence you; I write this in order that anyone that is reading this thread can judge by itself if are true your statements.

6) Javascript execution creates a possible malware vector.

You don't know what are you saying. So, vendors of epub3 won't check anything before selling a book.

Some of these are used by a minority of people reading.

How do you know? Are you God? You are projecting your own feelings and prejudices onto the rest of the world.

If you really need interactive (the reason for Javascript)...

This is a proof of how little you know about javascript and epub3. You think that javascript is only useful for interactive things. BIG MISTAKE. Javascript is usefull to format an ebook with a minimun of effort. to work less and give the user a better reading experience (with a richer format; watch the poetry layout).

I've Aldiko, Bluefire, Lithum and Pocket Book on Android. I've about 500 bought ebooks (since 2013 and from four stores) and about 5,000 PD ebooks (since about 2002). Not a single ebook has Javascript. Not a single ebook was delivered or downloaded in epub3.

In other words, you are the measure of all things. If something doesn't happen to you, it doesn't exist; if you don't like something, then it doesn't work. Epub2 is an obsolete format, that's the reality, and for comfort, or because you don't know how to do things any other way, you stick to it.

Again, try to get the poetry layout I uploaded with an epub2. And I have a lot of cases more than I don't want to publish here (I have my secrets) that are able to demonstrate the power of javascript. But for now what I posted is enough.