Signalling needed properties for EPUB3

[eschwartz]

Addendum to rant^^:

Apparently the greatest need in the ebook world today is to be able to embed videos in our ebooks.

So lets all focus on that, rather than the silly annotations and series support. Right?

[roger64]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

.../...
And let me add that while I personally see no use for EPUB 3 -- calibre is open source, and I welcome contributions. So if someone else wants to work on adding support for EPUB 3 to calibre, I will be happy to review code contributions.

Thank you for opening the door.


@theducks
I am not an Apple user - and I don't think I'll ever will be.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Addendum to rant^^:

Apparently the greatest need in the ebook world today is to be able to embed videos in our ebooks.

So lets all focus on that, rather than the silly annotations and series support. Right?

Spot on

While I would probably never use Annotations, That feature is of great use to many as the need has existed since the first classroom Having a Standard to do that and allow a new universal 'Citation' that does not rely on a 'Page-Paragraph...' seems way more important.

IMHO EPUB3 exists as a method to obsolete EPUB2 devices and create more sales of the 'Latest & Greatest'

I have an ancient (and 1/2 are now pretty obsolete ) set of Collier's on the shelf.
Not once have they made a sound (except when dropped). The pictures have not moved/changed in 30 years. There was no need, they are a snapshot in time.

Movies and Sound with text is Multi-Media. That definition has been around long before e-books. I am not saying 'Do Away with Multi-Media". I am saying "Leave the definition of a BOOK alone"

[eschwartz]

You probably have used annotations, it is a general category that includes not just highlights and notes, but bookmarks as well.

Otherwise I agree.

[cybmole]

Was there ever an epub1 ?
Just curious, did its supporters argue for no need for 2, if so

[darryl]

The more I learn about this the less need I see for epub3. What we probably should have had is a backwards compatible epub2.5.

[BetterRed]

Many years ago I did a stint as an ESL teacher in East Asia. I wish I had some of the 'teaching materials' then that I see now. They combine text, audio, video, and interactive elements seamlessly - and the consumer can control the presentation. I went to an exhibition at the V&A last time I was in London, it was fascinating.

I might be satisfied to have Carroll on my lap whilst watching Eisenstein and listening to Billie. But kids this days want all that on one device in a unified frame. And they want to hear Billie sing Jabberwocky, and make the Teutonic Knights fall down Alice's rabbit hole. Currently I suspect you can't do that in EPUB anything - but that's the future.

BR

[eschwartz]

I think I have said this in the past, but I'll say it again -- I don't really have anything against the idea of multimedia presentations.

On the other hand, I think the IDPF's job is to write specs for ebooks. And they should focus on what is in the best interest of ebooks.
I don't even have a problem if, during their spare time, they add multimedia frills to ebooks, as long as it doesn't harm anything else.

But when they ignore real issues in EPUB in order to go haring off after things not in their mandate... then I have a problem.

[BetterRed]

I don't give a monkey's what the IDPF does or doesn't do. Nor what EPUB might become or not become.

But I am convinced that the time of the 'book as we know it' as a primary medium for learning is or will soon be over. So I wonder if the book becomes a minor media for learning then what role will it have in the broader panoply of living.

BR

[eschwartz]

Well, I for one will be rather disappointed then -- I don't find video tutorials to be very elucidative, plus they're slow and inconveniently accessed.

[BetterRed]

If you mean the 'how to tie a bowline' as found on Youtube - you and me both brother.

Would have thought you would have been exposed to some of the stuff I'm talking about. I suspect you'll find some at Negroponte's lab at MIT.

Anyway this is way OT for this thread/forum/site - so over and out.

BR

[AnotherCat]

You peeps are way ahead of me because I thought that books got off track way back around the 5th Century when some clowns started wanting them to be illuminated. Then came the block books and other illustrated books and more recently, fancy this, they started putting these new fangled photographs in them .

Now we also have these ebooky things that are printed on paper that one cannot see, the print just floats around on things they call "screens" . What's wrong with good old vellum, or even paper (as long as it is white!!!)?

And, heaven forbid, you're all arguing about having movies in books now; frankly, I can't see how those will work for us 'cos we, like many, don't have anyone here who knows how to play the piano in the dark while the movie is running.

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Furthermore, since epub 3 is not backward compatible with epub 2 generating epub 3 files will mean your books will not work properly on large numbers of existing installations. UNless you restrict yourself to things that could be done in epub 2 anyway, in which case what is the point.

The only really interesting changes are the deprecation of a bunch of old junk (which means future readers won't implement it) and some slightly richer metadata, IIRC. And most of that stuff should probably be safe for use with EPUB 2 readers, so long as you also include the deprecated EPUB 2 compatibility bits such as the NCX file.

[kovidgoyal]

Since there are, and likely will be for many years to come, millions of existing epub 2 books, I find it highly unlikely that hypothetical future readers will not implement support for the parts of epub 2 that epub 3 replaces.

[LadyKate]

I do how the standard insists on the name of an epub3 be distinguished from the current version. It is so inconvenient when there is no indication of what version you are getting when the newer versions are not backward compatible.