4 ms·
An analysis of EPUB3 (and, uh, a bit more)
- mdaniel 16y ago> "This book needs more cowbell." Funny, I feel that way about most websites ... especially a "website in a box." I feel his pain and I don't even have to implement those specs.
- GHFigs 16y agoAwfully ranty. I'll attempt to summarize: - JavaScript now optional but discouraged. Author surmises this will be abused, decries feature creep. - No required Unicode glyph coverage. Thus even though content is UTF-8 or UTF-16, you still can't rely on readers actually supporting the glyphs you want to use. - Author laments reader software that fails to implement EPUB-specific features and practical result of same. The specific case of a certain fruit company is vividly rendered in an extended metaphor. - A list of smaller features is discussed in brief. MathML support is probably the most interesting to HN. - Cannonical Fragment Identifiers. A scheme for identifying *any* location inside an EPUB document, is described as over-engineered and unlikely to be implemented by anybody.
- quinndupont 16y agoI think more developers should get this passionate about specifications.
- bradleyland 16y agoSome of his points are perfectly valid, but some come across as anti-progress. I have a fair amount of experience in the childrens' book publishing industry. Current ebook formats don't supply the features that educators know improve learning. Text on the page is important, but supplementary audio and video are good for learning. Interactivity is good for learning. Right now, the go-to tool for low-level interactive books is Flash. Yes, Flash. How sad is that? Monumental amounts of early-stage learning materials are being published in a proprietary format that is notoriously opaque, and tied to a commercial "player" that is only available from one vendor. We desperately need tools to create interactive ebooks that are based on open standards like EPUB, and we need them soon.