"E-reader devices", naming

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Luigino

Then since formats are anyway books then let's call them eBooks and we don't complicate life... ;-)

IMHO...

I don't think the discussion is what to call the digital files... but what to call the device which you use to view them. I agree the files should be called ebooks.

I usually call the device a "reader" or "ebook reader"... but never an eReader since that is the name of the once called Palm Doc format. Although you can usually tell from the context whether someone meant ereader the file format or ereader a device that you use to read ebooks.

BOb

[zelda_pinwheel]

didn't we all agree on Vera / lys au juice months ago ?

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Since some one amongst us suggests that format changes should not necessarily prompt new terms for existing things, perhaps we should call them scrolls or maybe tablets, whether they are in digital, paper, or other form. Or maybe "scratchings in dirt". Hey, did you see that Amazon now has over 120,000 scratchings in dirt available for the Kindle?

I love 'scroll'! Since that word is rarely in use we should give it an other chance.

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I don't think the discussion is what to call the digital files... but what to call the device which you use to view them. I agree the files should be called ebooks.

I usually call the device a "reader" or "ebook reader"... but never an eReader since that is the name of the once called Palm Doc format. Although you can usually tell from the context whether someone meant ereader the file format or ereader a device that you use to read ebooks.

BOb

I still don't like the prefix 'e'. A book is a book, an organized text. And a machine to read, being, electronic, nuclear or intracranial should be called a book processor. Wouldn't it be logical that its name followed that of the software that created it?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

I still don't like the prefix 'e'. A book is a book, an organized text. And a machine to read, being, electronic, nuclear or intracranial should be called a book processor. Wouldn't it be logical that its name followed that of the software that created it?

Whatever, to each his own, vive la difference, variety is the spice of life, agree to disagree, etc.

I'm going to go read an ebook on my ereader in my efficency electric elevator while listening to my iPod through my iDog.

Good day sir.

BOb

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

I still don't like the prefix 'e'. A book is a book, an organized text. And a machine to read, being, electronic, nuclear or intracranial should be called a book processor. Wouldn't it be logical that its name followed that of the software that created it?

A book is a book, I've no problem with that definition-it imparts information in a textual form (occasionally with pictures thrown in).
The e-book definition indicates that the information is in an electronic format; and needs a computer to display it, rather than paper, papyrus, scroll, teashirt, cave-wall etc etc.

I like "slate"

[yvanleterrible]

What I like about book processor (forgive me for insisting) is that it does not conjure up a defined shape like 'slate' would do. If tomorrow someone invented a 3D display that hung words up in the air, or someone invented a way to directly access words in your brain, book processor would fit them to a tee.

On an other note the devices we have today are already actually book processors. Any time you open an ebook, the computer on board processes the text to fit the screen. If you change text size, it reprocesses the whole book again accordingly. There you go, book processor, whatever shape, size or display.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

What I like about book processor (forgive me for insisting) is that it does not conjure up a defined shape like 'slate' would do. If tomorrow someone invented a 3D display that hung words up in the air, or someone invented a way to directly access words in your brain, book processor would fit them to a tee.

On an other note the devices we have today are already actually book processors. Any time you open an ebook, the computer on board processes the text to fit the screen. If you change text size, it reprocesses the whole book again accordingly. There you go, book processor, whatever shape, size or display.

It's the use of the word "processor" that bugs me a little. That implies making a book, not providing it for use...

[yvanleterrible]

Yeah! I felt that way too at first. But what bugs me most is that I'm not a reader anymore because some silly device stole my name. And after all we're used to word processor.

[Taylor514ce]

It's a "booker". Compute - er. Read - er. Something that processes books, is a booker. Right? Reading a book on a booker is "booking". This discussion is unutterably silly.

Call them whatever you want. It doesn't matter, context is king.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

context is king.

By jove, he's done it...



context ....



con

text

[nekokami]

Context. Hm. Actually I like that. I'm reading Dennis Sumara's Why Reading Literature in School Still Matters (in paper, unfortunately), and it's all about how we construct meaning within our contexts, and learning to do this with literature helps us to do it elsewhere in our lives, possibly. My iLiad is my context. The context in which I think, ponder, observe, annotate. I can access the web from my iLiad, as well. Hm.

Not that there was anything wrong with "booker," either.

[Taylor514ce]

HA! It's a CONTEXT. Take THAT, liseuse, with your pretentious provenance and sissy sibilants.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

HA! It's a CONTEXT. Take THAT, liseuse, with your snobby provenance and sissy sibilants.

pff, right, because THAT'S going to catch on...

[GeoffC]

The term book has become synonymous with story, or content.
A book traditionally holds the printed (or written) word, allowing the user to read the narrative, or information.

So what we are now referring to is a device that allows the user to read an electronic version of the same.


Is it still a "book"? or does it now become a viewer?

[GeoffC]

p.s.

I still think it's a big con...(...trick)