CSS mess

[JSWolf]

Why is it that a lot of publishers feel that having hundreds of unused CSS styles int he CSS is a good idea?

[davidfor]

Because it makes it easier for them to develop the books. One common stylesheet across all their books containing all the things they want.

Or, they are using a tool that generates more than you think is needed.

And of course, because it doesn't really matter. The books display properly, and a few extra styles won't harm.

[JSWolf]

But with some older Readers, this can slow things down and in some cases, causes them to not work properly.

Using Calibre, it takes less than 30 seconds to dump all of those unused styles.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But with some older Readers, this can slow things down and in some cases, causes them to not work properly.

Which older ereaders?

Using Calibre, it takes less than 30 seconds to dump all of those unused styles.

Only if you are already opening it in the calibre editor for some other reason. If you aren't, then it adds extra time plus learning yet-anther-tool to do something that is not really needed.

[JSWolf]

I've read of problems with some version Sony Reader and some other Readers no longer made. This was back when the processors were slower and the ram, not as much.

Oh and I remember one case of someone having trouble doing a conversion of an eBook because Calibre ran out of memory. The solution to that was to clean up the CSS and do the conversion again.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've read of problems with some version Sony Reader and some other Readers no longer made. This was back when the processors were slower and the ram, not as much.

Which devices exactly? There are a lot of old Sony's and most of them are probably no longer useful because of the battery. I've never heard of any issues with the old Kobo's.

Oh and I remember one case of someone having trouble doing a conversion of an eBook because Calibre ran out of memory. The solution to that was to clean up the CSS and do the conversion again.

But did they simple remove unused styles or rationalise them? The two things are vastly different. And the action of opening a book for reading is different to converting them. My bet is that one of the statements made by the poster of that problem was that the book opened with no problems.

And don't forget, the publishers have no interest in the purchasers doing anything other than read the book. If you told them the code was bad, there response would probably be something like, "So what?" or "Could you read the book?"

[Ravensknight]

I laugh in the face of your so-called problem, JsWolf. I hope things like this keep popping up for you.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it that a lot of publishers feel that having hundreds of unused CSS styles int he CSS is a good idea?

Have you asked them? They are the only ones who can answer your question.

[theducks]

It is not that they want a consistent code 'style'
It is the final question: Why not clean out the unused upon release?

If they need edits, the simply replace the cleaned sheet with the Master sheet and clean again upon the release of the update. This is like shipping a custom cabinet with the sawdust remaining

One word: "Lazy"

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

I laugh in the face of your so-called problem, JsWolf. I hope things like this keep popping up for you.

I never said it's a problem. I'm just asking why some publishers use a CSS with hundreds of unused styles. There are even cases where they put classes in the XHTML flies that have no CSS equivalent.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I never said it's a problem. I'm just asking why some publishers use a CSS with hundreds of unused styles. There are even cases where they put classes in the XHTML flies that have no CSS equivalent.

To annoy you.

How many people would even notice the CSS?

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by theducks

It is not that they want a consistent code 'style'
It is the final question: Why not clean out the unused upon release?

Time is money. Why waste time on an unnecessary task?

If they need edits, the simply replace the cleaned sheet with the Master sheet and clean again upon the release of the update. This is like shipping a custom cabinet with the sawdust remaining

That analogy only works for the 2% of customers who bother to look at the inside of the ebook.

It's noteworthy however that the comparison is with something produced by a craftsperson, where a good part of the value comes from knowing it's made to a certain standard. I doubt even among the 2% there's few who'd value their ebooks more because of the clean internal design.

One word: "Lazy"

If they could persuade anyone to pay more for an ebook without excess CSS I'd agree, though 'lazy' is not the word I'd use. As it is I'd call it 'efficient'

[JSWolf]

We've read of problems with Readers because of some book. I have no idea if maybe any of these books are causing a problem because of the overabundance of CSS classes.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We've read of problems with Readers because of some book. I have no idea if maybe any of these books are causing a problem because of the overabundance of CSS classes.

I think the keywords there Jon are, no idea and maybe.

If you know excess CSS is causing a problem with any reader then you may have a leg to stand on, on an anecdotal note, my Sony 650 hasn't had any problems.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by latepaul

If they could persuade anyone to pay more for an ebook without excess CSS I'd agree, though 'lazy' is not the word I'd use. As it is I'd call it 'efficient'

I call it lazy as well. I remember, when I first started working (software development for internet) we had to make pages as small as possible. Bytes were money! Even so that in the HTML, CSS and javascript you removed any non-mandatory space, just to make the file as small as possible.

Later, with the advent of ISDN (paired) and DSL, this became less and less necessary and we became lazy in removing extra lines or cleaning up code (beside what you have to do to keep it managable, naturally).

Later still, even though broadband was the standard, we had to return to the pre-DSL time and make pages as small as possible again: mobile phones. Time was again put in to clean any non-required spaces.

Now, with almost unlimited mobile bundles (at least, on this side of the big pond), developers are getting lazy again, and don't clean their code as they should.

It might be "efficient" on the creator's side: no excess time spent, but most certainly not efficient on the reader's side: larger than required files, which might take longer to process, because of nothing important.