Quote:
Originally Posted by nick_
I just saw that you have created ... SIX different documents for different devices!!!
Exactly my point!
And why six documents and not ten? Or 20?
We need a format with just one document, not multiple.
Latex and pdf were created for printed paper, not for screens. Sure, there are people who learned to use these formats and they don't want to learn anything else. This does not change the fact that those are printed paper formats. Tex and Latex are around for 30 years and they are marginal formats at best. They are not going to get more popular in the future, they will slowly disappear.
(The topic is: which format will win?)
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I think that a unformatted source with 20 (or 20 thousand) different "layout recipes" will do.
- The author provide the content
- The device producer provide the template for the "layout recipe", with the embedded rules about what the device can / cannot do
- The publisher provides the formatting template
- The dealer combines the device template and the publisher's formatting and sends them with the ebook
- The user can edit, modify and create its own "layout recipe" to have the most enjoyable reading experience.
In a world of standards, it all can be done with very simple UIs.
To stay in topic, wich format will win, there are actually two answers:
1. The one with the hardest to circumvent DRM schema (if it will ever exist)
2. The one which is proprietary to the coolest device in the market (if iPad had some function in it, other than coolness, I'd say iBooks, but I dont believe enough people will buy those useless bricks, no matter how cool they are...)