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Originally Posted by Hadrien
Hyphenation is linked to the screen size, so it has nothing to do with the program that created the RTF file.
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Huh? Hyphenation has little to do with the screen size - just in determining if the word should be hyphenated when flowing the text.
Where the hyphen goes is determined by the eBook file. I've seen this time and time again (especially in RTF files).
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Originally Posted by Hadrien
RTF doesn't support embedded fonts, do you believe that each and every book in your library use the same font ? They don't.
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I believe that the content of the eBook and the font shouldn't be linked.
Again, you are thinking in terms of paper today. Not what eBooks should be.
Wouldn't it be nice to have an eBook where you (the reader) could select the font to use? Older people could choose a larger font to make it easier to read. Younger people could choose a smaller font to get more information on the screen. But it can be left up to the reader to determine what the correct font/size it.
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Originally Posted by Hadrien
Maybe YOU just need simple features and a poor formatting system, but I don't believe that's the case for everyone.
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First we need to satisfy 80% of the market. That will make eBooks the norm and get more innovation out there. Then we can deal with the other 20% that need more.
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Originally Posted by Hadrien
If you really believe that RTF is perfect and that PDF is the devil, well then good for you...
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I have neither said nor implied that RTF is perfect, or that PDF is the devil.
I have stated that:
1. PDF completely fails as an eBook format because of its page-oriented mentality.
2. RTF is a better solution than PDF because it isn't page-oriented, but allows for more formatting than plain text.
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Originally Posted by Hadrien
I'm looking forward for something both portable and powerful, but I know that it'll be hard to make such a format.
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HTML and OpenDocument already exist.
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Originally Posted by Hadrien
In the meantime, I believe the best solution is to store books in a database or using XML, and create files out of it (some editors use LaTeX already). Keeping all these books in a single text file (TXT or RTF) is the wrong choice, you need to know where the chapters start and end for example if you want something ready for any advanced format. With such a system you can create what you call "absolute positioning" in a relative way: each device and each person can have his/her own formatting. You can also create pure text files out of it, but that would be like downsampling an audio file. When and if a powerful XML format become available, the same system will still work, creating just another kind of files as an output.
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So what you are proposing is what I said before:
Keeping the eBook in Format-X then producing something like PDF when the user wants to read it, formatted for the device the user wants to read it on.
I am questioning why that's a good idea. Why make an eBook reader that uses closed, proprietary formats? Why not just have the eBook reader process Format-X in the first place?