epub: why multiple HTML?

[pavelh]

Hi,
probably a very simple answer to this, I hope

I wonder why are texts within epub divided into several HTML files? Is it only because of chapters? If you want to apply some automatic functions to the text, it is always easier to have just a single file if possible, so why creating this multi-html structure?

Thanks in advance for explaining this to me
Best!

P

[pdurrant]

It's so that ePub reading software can render the HTML within limited resources, as it only needs to render part of the book (one HTML file) at a time.

[pavelh]

That was something that crossed my mind also but knowing nothing about the HW could not really evaluate the validity of the assumption.
Thank you for your kind reply!
Best
P

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pavelh

That was something that crossed my mind also but knowing nothing about the HW could not really evaluate the validity of the assumption.
Thank you for your kind reply!
Best
P

When ADE was made for the Sony Reader PRS-505, they had to make it work/fit the existing hardware. So it was decided to make each HTML file no bigger then a specific size (I don't know what that size is offhand). that means that ePub works with limited hardware.

[exaltedwombat]

It's about chapters. It's about not making the reader cope with over-large files.

Sigil lets you perform e.g. search/replace operations on 'Current File', 'All HTML Files' or 'Selected HTML Files'. Doesn't the editor you use?

Also, it's a great deal easier to locate a code error in a block of 500 lines rather than one of 5000!

[elchamaco]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When ADE was made for the Sony Reader PRS-505, they had to make it work/fit the existing hardware. So it was decided to make each HTML file no bigger then a specific size (I don't know what that size is offhand). that means that ePub works with limited hardware.

300 Kb Images and Html files.

[BetterRed]

Sigil and calibre epub editors have merge and split features. If I get book split on arbitrary boundaries (usually around 240kb) I merge it into one and split on chapter boundaries. Some ereaders, e.g calibre's 4.1 ebook-reader and the one I use on my phone (can't remember its name - it was abandoned soon after I got it), have features to skip to start/end/next/previous sections (chapters).

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Sigil and calibre epub editors have merge and split features. If I get book split on arbitrary boundaries (usually around 240kb) I merge it into one and split on chapter boundaries. Some ereaders, e.g calibre's 4.1 ebook-reader and the one I use on my phone (can't remember its name - it was abandoned soon after I got it), have features to skip to start/end/next/previous sections (chapters).

BR

Discworld books do not have chapters. But I find whoever is making the eBooks is rather lazy. What I do is edit the ePub to make the HTML split at a section break. That's a lot more sensible then breaking as some arbitrary place.

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Discworld books do not have chapters. But I find whoever is making the eBooks is rather lazy. What I do is edit the ePub to make the HTML split at a section break. That's a lot more sensible then breaking as some arbitrary place.

I just opened up a couple of Pratchetts. You're right, no chapters. But paragraphs styled as 'spacebreak' followed by a no-indent line - that in some books is even styled 'chapterOpenerText'! So he knew where the breaks SHOULD have come...

[theducks]

Even IF...
Performance improves if you use smaller chunks.

Chapters are just a Logical place to break.
Note: some viewers will reopen at the (top of) last file viewed. If that is a huge, single file... Yep! the top
Sigil and Calibre searches can work across these files so there is no need to work on a Single file. Both, also allow you to reorder files by dragging to the new position. No cut and paste if you are just moving a 'chapter'

[Sarmat89]

Also, it is a guaranteed way to force a page break.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by pavelh

Hi,
probably a very simple answer to this, I hope

I wonder why are texts within epub divided into several HTML files? Is it only because of chapters? If you want to apply some automatic functions to the text, it is always easier to have just a single file if possible, so why creating this multi-html structure?

Thanks in advance for explaining this to me
Best!

P

Ehhhh...it's not "always easier." Sure, it can make a difference in some things, but as Wombat pointed out, if you are trying to troubleshoot, it's FAR easier to review a handful of lines than all of them!

And both Sigil and most decent HTML editors will allow you to search across one file, some files, or all files. My NoteTabPro does that and so, too, does Sigil. (And Calibre's HTML editor, too, I believe.)

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Ehhhh...it's not "always easier." Sure, it can make a difference in some things, but as Wombat pointed out, if you are trying to troubleshoot, it's FAR easier to review a handful of lines than all of them!

And both Sigil and most decent HTML editors will allow you to search across one file, some files, or all files. My NoteTabPro does that and so, too, does Sigil. (And Calibre's HTML editor, too, I believe.)

Hitch

With Calibre, you can search across all text files, all style files, or just the current file.

[Notjohn]

>300 Kb Images and Html files

I will have to check out my French and English ebooks of À la recherche du temps perdu. I'm sure that M. Proust did not limit himself to 300 kb tranches of text!

>Also, it is a guaranteed way to force a page break.

Yes, I've come to like it for just that reason. I start a new file with every photograph and caption so that at best they fall together on the same "page" or at worst the caption follows the image with no other text on that "page."

If one does the <heading> correctly with title and style sheet, splitting the file requires no work whatever in Sigil.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

...
If one does the <heading> correctly with title and style sheet, splitting the file requires no work whatever in Sigil.

I should probably know how you do this, but I usually just use a S/R to add the chapter split marker before each chapter header, then F6 to do the actual split. Is there a function to split on <h> tags??