New Software: convert plain text files to epub/mobi format

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by RobertDDL

I've mentioned LibreOffice here as proof that a TOC can be generated on the fly by parsing a HTML file for header tags. I simply wish that my ebook reader and some lightweight e-book reading software on my PC could do the same -- I just don't see the need for a separate TOC. I still don't understand the benefits of having NCX and OPF, but I stand corrected by all of you that the problem isn't the complexity of ePub, but just my indolence

Because ereaders are lightweight read-only software. Yeah, LibreOffice can generate ToCs. It can also edit the files.
Why can't my ereader edit books too?

You want some "lightweight ebook reading software" to... compare favorably in scope to a very heavyweight Document editor.
Keep in mind, the only reason LibreOffice includes code for doing so is because it is intended as an editing software!!

Instead of performing a one-off conversion/formatting/structuring in order to provide all necessary resources from the get-go. For a format that is intended to be immutable.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by RobertDDL

I've mentioned LibreOffice here as proof that a TOC can be generated on the fly by parsing a HTML file for header tags. I simply wish that my ebook reader and some lightweight e-book reading software on my PC could do the same -- I just don't see the need for a separate TOC. I still don't understand the benefits of having NCX and OPF, but I stand corrected by all of you that the problem isn't the complexity of ePub, but just my indolence

I do agree that NCX is probably more complicated than it should be but an external TOC is necessary on many books. The format was a compromise with DAISY. In ePub 3 the format of this important file was changed to be HTML like the format for files. Thus there is now no need to learn a different format, although NCX did provide a method to identify page numbers which could be useful.

OPF on the other hand is essential to capture the metadata. Pure HTML provides syntax but not semantics. Even in HTML there was the header section which was always more complicated in that there wasn't really much of a standard to identify anything but the simplest metadata but for multiple files it didn't make much sense to repeat this stuff so collecting it in a different file is useful. It is a small file that can be opened at any time to present data for the user. It can even provide the description of the contents used to sell the book. It is also useful to provide some integrity, not available in HTML where the full list of files is shown so that if a file is missing you would know it.

Dale

[RobertDDL]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Why can't my ereader edit books too?

I wish it could, then I could use it for proofreading, which I do a lot and which I'm forced to do at the computer now. But if all goes well I'll get myself a Surface 3 before the end of the year, then I hope I can use that.

To the other arguments by all of you I could make some replies which wouldn't seem more convincing to any of you than what I've already said. What I had originally meant to say was simply that I'm not enthusiastic about ePub, for purely personal reasons, without having wanted to start a big discussion about it -- sorry that it came across, by my own poor choice of words, as if I had some anti-ePub agenda, which I don't.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by RobertDDL

I wish it could, then I could use it for proofreading, which I do a lot and which I'm forced to do at the computer now. But if all goes well I'll get myself a Surface 3 before the end of the year, then I hope I can use that.

I wish ereader's would allow editing too...for just that reason...proofreading. But I have been using the surface to do the job for the last couple of years. The process works out very well. However, I do all (99%) of my editing with Sigil. I could read from the preview pane - although now I am so used to seeing HTML markup that I don't really "see" it and I just read from the code view and make all my edits as I go. (reminds me of a movie a watched once... )

FWIW - I used to put all my books into a single html file, but was really disappointed when some readers would bog down, or crash completely, trying to open the larger books. I used a quick search/replace (search: <h2> replace: <hr class="sigil_split_marker" /><h2>) and then the automated Split at Markers (F6) function, and Generate Table of Contents (Ctrl-T) function; Sigil does all the work - creating the content.opf and toc.ncx for me. Literally only takes a couple of seconds. Now I've gotten used to each chapter having a file, and it has really helped me to keep the books organized much better.

Cheers,

[dickloraine]

You should be able to proofread even with a simple and cheap android tablet. If you work with word processor files, wps office and textmaker both even support the editing functions of word, allowing you to follow changes and using annotations. You could proofread for example on the tablet and then review that on the pc. Or do it all on the tablet.

If it has to be e-ink, there are some tablets with it too. But if such apps work there in a reasonable speed, I don't know.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by RobertDDL

I wish it could, then I could use it for proofreading, which I do a lot and which I'm forced to do at the computer now. But if all goes well I'll get myself a Surface 3 before the end of the year, then I hope I can use that.

To the other arguments by all of you I could make some replies which wouldn't seem more convincing to any of you than what I've already said. What I had originally meant to say was simply that I'm not enthusiastic about ePub, for purely personal reasons, without having wanted to start a big discussion about it -- sorry that it came across, by my own poor choice of words, as if I had some anti-ePub agenda, which I don't.

RobertDDL:

I respect your feelings. I was hoping, in my blithering, to make ePUB less painful for you, but...hey, as eschwartz said, who are we to tell you that your feelings aren't valid? Just a bunch of voices, people you don't know and will likely never meet. :-) Ignore me!! (I've recently taken up the mantle of ignore-amus on forums. I'm constantly running into "those types of people" on forums--the "always gotta be right/be the winner" folks, and I've now started to say "you're right, I'm wrong, happy now?")

Therefore, as I've decided that we all ought to, for our own sanity, ignore THOSE folks on forums, as I said, ignore me full-tilt-boogie.

Hitch

[Toxaris]

I am still looking for a good reader program on my Windows tablet, not even think about editing... So far, AZARDI seems the most reasonable program, but I am not even thrilled about that one.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

I am still looking for a good reader program on my Windows tablet, not even think about editing... So far, AZARDI seems the most reasonable program, but I am not even thrilled about that one.

Heck, forget reading ePUBs on a Windows 8 tablet (I don't like ANY of the readers available), why can't Microsoft--of which I am not normally a Hater--make the damned on-screen keyboard lockable in the DOWN position? It's annoying as hell.

</mini-rant>

Hitch

[RobertDDL]

Originally Posted by Hitch

RobertDDL:

I respect your feelings. I was hoping, in my blithering, to make ePUB less painful for you

Thank you!

I had honestly been resolved to remain silent here and not to contribute further to this distraction from the thread's original topic, but your kind words entice me to break this sensible resolution. I have criticised ePub unfairly, which does what it is meant to do well enough, and is also open and straight-forward enough to be edited at plain text level if one cares to put a little effort into understanding the details.

What I regret is the absence of an even simpler alternative, where the more advanced features of ePub aren't needed. In the early 1990s I've written an ebook reader software that ran under MS-DOS, which used a simple tagged text format. It had no problem at all with novel-sized texts, with bookmarks, with footnotes and internal links, and it automatically generated TOCs from heading tags in the text, allowing the reader to navigate the TOC by folding and unfolding heading levels -- all this instantly, without any noticeable delay. So, if I could do it more than 20 years ago, it certainly could be done today -- only, I lack the skills even to write a Firefox add-on that offers basic e-reading features for HTML -- like, bookmarks and folding/unfolding of heading levels -- this is what galls me, my own programming incompetence (It would be much easier to do than, for instance, the Firefox ePub add-on, but, as often is the case with the simple things, no one bothers to do them.)

I'll start a related thread in a few days...