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Old 07-20-2009, 03:26 PM   #61
Timoleon
Time Enough at Last
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Posts: 387
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: New England
Device: iPad 3, iPhone 5, Kindle 3, Fire, Sony PRS-350
Quote:
Originally Posted by crutledge View Post
I have a proposal or wish to solve a lot of the problems discussed here. A new ebook browser/editor. A mockup of this tool is attached.

It would have the following attributes and capabilities:
1. Would look much like or identical to Book Designer.
2. Would have the full capablities of Book Designer.
3. Would have a full windows tool icon set for justification, fonts, color, bold, etc.
4. Would have split screen capabilities showing text in one screen and html in the other. These screens would be synced so as one is changed the change is immediately shown in the other. For example, if a paragraph is highlighted in the text the html would also highlight. If highlighted and changed from paragraph to title the html would immediately reflect the change and vice versa. The cursors in each window would follow. The text screen is a full browser whuch displays the html loaded.
5. Would have a pop-up window showing all html tags and elements. These are in addition to the capabilities fo the Book Corrector. These tags and elements when double clicked will insert at the cursor or before and after highlighted text.(ala EditPadPro) The user can select any html tag or element and would be responsible for proper selection except for those like Book Corrector.
6. Would only accept text and/or html files. There would be no dependency on external software, e.g. Windows Word. All these tools will export html.
7 Would have no native book generator. All book generators will be insertable by the developer and/or the user. A well defined interface for calling the generator, e.g. a command line call to Calibre or Nick's imp generators, and would be published. The external generator would be responsible for generating a proper opf file.
8. Would have an External Tools icon with the built-in capabilites to add and select charm (.chm) files with help and definitions for a proper html for various book formats.
9. Would save only html.

This list could go on. But it would divorce the browser/editor from book generation. The saving grace is that the identical tool is already available for building WEB pages but are limited the WEB pages and of little use for ebooks. However, some of these are in the public domain with source code available (both java and python) and a GNU license. 60 to 90 percent of the code is already available. The parsers and editors are already written. This could be a fine project for someone and would be a great service to the mobile read and ebook community at large.

I don't know why the BD crew quit. They were on the threshold of something truly great.

Charlie
Charlie,

This is an excellent concept. I wonder what the status of the Book Designer code is at the moment? Is it "abandonware"? Would there be legal ramifications if someone started messing with the code? I wonder how difficult it would be to get in touch with the original authors (Russian?) and get permission from them to carry on the good name and works of Book Designer?
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