Apple Mac now have a file extension ".iba" for the program "iBooks Author."

[brucehobson]

Hi,

Apple Mac OS 10.9 has a new program called "iBooks Author". Which has a default file extension of ".iba"

It would be great if this was supported in calibre.


Thanks,

Bruce

[eschwartz]

It would be great if Apple would allow it to be supported by anyone other than Apple.

Take a look at the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBooks_Author

The output of iBooks Author is a proprietary Apple file format similar to the EPUB standard, but with extensions that prevent it from being universally readable or editable as an EPUB document.[10] The format uses undocumented, proprietary XML namespaces and undocumented extensions to CSS.[11]

Apple is extremely unfriendly towards people wanting to use their stuff outside of their other stuff.
[/END APPLE RANT]

I doubt anyone is willing to figure out the namespace mapping to convert these "books" into EPUB. So unless someone volunteers to figure this out, I doubt it.

As iBooks Author has been available for 2 & 1/2 years already, I feel I can safely say Kovid Goyal is uninterested.

[brucehobson]

Thank you very much for the quick and very comprehensive reply...


Bruce :-)

[BetterRed]

If they want a proprietary format why don't they invent their own instead of leaning on the efforts of the open standards community - does it work on their new watch

BR