OpenBerg e-book reader supports OEBPS 1.2

[Colin Dunstan]

The OpenBerg e-book reader, part of the OpenBerg project, can now open and display books in uncompressed OEBPS (OpenReader) 1.2 format, as well as follow hyperlinks. Note that this is a great forward leap in an open source implementation of OpenReader. Who will be the first to release an e-book reader for PDAs supporting OEBPS 1.2? My bet would be: Plucker.

Jon Noring, member of the OpenReader Consortium, explains:

OEBPS 1.2 (and most other publication frameworks built upon XML) represent digital publications using multiple resources (files). Obviously, for distributing ebooks and similar types of digital publications (newspapers, periodicals, documents, etc.), we want to distribute a publication as a *single* file. Thus, we have to somehow encapsulate an OEBPS 1.2 Publication into some sort of "wrapper" file for distribution/sale purposes.

This is what the OpenReader format is intended to address. Currently, the OpenReader format has not yet been finalized -- at this stage it is still conceptual with a preliminary list of requirements. A technical working group needs to be assembled to finalize 1) the "requirements" list (e.g., "the OpenReader format must do this, that, and the other thing") and then 2) come up with the format spec details that sufficiently meets the list of requirements.

OpenBerg addresses the issue of *how to render* (display) an OEBPS 1.2 Publication, while the OpenReader format addresses *how to move* an OEBPS 1.2 Publication from the publisher to OpenBerg and other OEBPS rendering engines. OpenBerg and OpenReader are not in competition, but rather complement each other.

[pruss]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

The OpenBerg e-book reader, part of the OpenBerg project, can now open and display books in uncompressed OEBPS (OpenReader) 1.2 format, as well as follow hyperlinks. Note that this is a great forward leap in an open source implementation of OpenReader. Who will be the first to release an e-book reader for PDAs supporting OEBPS 1.2? My bet would be: Plucker.

Hmm. I'm not doing it in the near future, though I can't speak for the rest of the Plucker team. :-) If interesting books in the format start appearing, I guess I might make a script to convert to HTML.

My current Plucker project is to revamp the annotation support. It's there in the current cvs version, but it's well hidden, which is good because the format will change.

[Colin Dunstan]

You are from the Plucker dev team? Didn't know! This is some great work you did, and I also appreciate hacker's help here on board.

I am curious, do other Plucker developers know about us?