Lack of EPUB 3 basic support despite claim

[cedhax]

Since Marvin 3.0 was released on June 20, 2016, it has claimed to support EPUB 3.0 on its App Store description page:

Marvin opens DRM-free EPUB books (basic support for 3.0), and CBZ/CBR comics.

Since then, seven updates has been released over the last two months, and yet the so-called basic support can't even extract Table of Contents from the standard EPUB 3.0 test cases. (See also this thread).

Therefore, I strongly advise kguil to drop the claim of "basic support for (EPUB) 3.0" so as not to be misleading. He can always add it back in the future whenever the basic support is really there.

[pwalker8]

I'm not sure what exactly you are trying to accomplish with this post. If you are requesting this as an enhancement, then perhaps you should try a less confrontational tone.

[JKenP]

I think there is a difference in claiming BASIC as opposed to FULL.

[Valkrider]

How valid are the test cases? I have opened several epub3 books in Marvin and have had no issues, maybe the test cases are using more functionality than real world epub3 books.

[desito]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

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Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[cedhax]

If you read a book in EPUB 2 in an app that fails to extract its embedded navigation map and display it as Table of Contents, then would you consider this app have basic support of EPUB 2? Of course not. Now replace EPUB 2 by EPUB 3, and you'll see what I mean.

[DiapDealer]

Most real World EPUB3s include an NCX for fallback purposes. In fact, I know of very few mainstream reading applications that make use of an EPUB3's NAV document (other than displaying it as an html toc). So most EPUB readers that support EPUB3 in ANY capacity would fail that "basic" test. That's exactly why most commercial EPUB3s being sold include an NCX. There's nothing misleading about Marvin's claim in my opinion. If you can read/navigate real-world EPUB3s that are being sold today, then that certainly qualifies as "basic support" in my eyes.

[cedhax]

If an EPUB reader app solely relies on NCX, then it does not have basic support of EPUB 3. NAV document is considered the basic stuff of EPUB 3. Note that I am not talking about multimedia support, MathML, vertical writing modes, right-to-left page prrogression, etc., which you may consider as "advanced" features. But NAV for Table of Contents also "advanced" (and thus not basic)? Then what else can be considered "basic support"?

Opening an EPUB book with both EPUB2 and EPUB3 features but is designed to also work with EPUB2 readers for backward compatibility makes commercial sense, but this does not automatically qualify the EPUB2 readers as having EPUB3 basic support. You see, such a qualification process would render the term "EPUB3 basic support" pretty much meaningless--all you get is a hype.

I don't know which readers you consider as "mainstream". But I definitely consider iBooks as "mainstream". It does take full advantage of EPUB 3 nav. On this feature alone, I do consider iBooks has basic support of EPUB3. In fact, it has a lot more than basic support.

[DiapDealer]

Done arguing with you. Our definitions of EPUB3 "support" (basic or otherwise) clearly differ (and yes, I consider iBooks to be a bit of a red-headed stepchild when it comes to epub reading apps).

[ShellShock]

There is no right or wrong answer in this thread, as it all boils down to a totally subjective opinion of what "basic support" means. I am not aware that "basic support" is defined in the EPUB3 standard to include supporting the nav document.

[JSWolf]

Is there an official definition of basic ePub 3 support?

[cedhax]

Let's illustrate the issue with another example. See my post in another thread.