[DawnFalcon]

The whole point is you're pushing a fixed layout on me, and I don't want a fixed layout. I agree it's utterly ridiculous!

I understand precisely what TeX is designed to accomplish. and why it's developed as it has. And once more I'd rather have a designed-for-ebook standard using XHTML - ePuB - rather than the designed-for-print, legally-problematical TeX, which would add to the costs of creating ebooks because it uses a different markup language than those familar to anyone with web-design and layout experience. (Barriers. Every one a barrier to making ebooks)

"come up with a true typesetting direction they want their machines to pursue"

The whole point is I do not want a typesetting direction forced on me by the creator of my e-reader. That's print-book thinking, and forcing a fixed format onto the user regardless of their wishes will certainly, as you note, make it take decades for any sort of takeoff of ebooks, when you're ignoring every advantage of the format!

In less than a decade, e-readers will routinely have wireless. Then there's an awful lot you can do with dictionary referencing, eARC's and revisions and even dynamic interaction with ARG's.

You've certainly managed to convine me to study the motives of anyone pushing TeX as an ebook renderer very closely!