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Originally Posted by Prospect
In digital reading as in paper based reading there is the need for the following (IMHO):
1. To be able to point at a position in the text independent of device and format. This is a need for scholars, but also for enthusiastic readers taking notes, students discussing a text book or for persons reading the same text on different devices. Hyperlink is great but it would be an advantage if the system could be and communicated of line and by humans as well.
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For most references to fiction books, a chapter number is adequate for referencing purposes (In "Pride and Prejudice", Ch 15, Austen says...). Most eBooks have a table of contents allowing you to jump to a particular chapter.
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2. To give the reader some idea of the length of the text (before reading) and the relative position (while reading). This is helpful information for readers planning their reading. Should I read In Search of Lost Time or Death in Venice?
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One can generally tell from the size of the file approximately how long the book is (unless it's illustrated, in which case all bets are off!). I find the Gen3's display of a progress bar, plus to ability to see the total number of pages in the book to be adequate (although I'm well aware that not everyone agrees).
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The page numbers used in paper solves these tasks in a great way. For ereading it has been suggested to use percentages, paragraphs, kbs or some fixed page length. Sadly none of this has been agreed as a part of the epub-format. The current status is ebabel.
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I'm afraid I don't agree with you that it's "ebabel". Every eBook device has some way of showing you where you are in a book. They don't all need to be the same, any more than every edition of a paper book will be paginated in the same way.