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Should be a format that can be grep'd, made into PostScript, DejaVu, etc. Versatile. ASCII works well for that. Open, non-proprietary format. Not only that,
by bookworm_ 14y ago
Should be a format that can be grep'd, made into PostScript, DejaVu, etc. Versatile. ASCII works well for that. Open, non-proprietary format.
Not only that, working with raw text is so much faster than anything else. less(1) is the most responsive "ebook reader" I've ever used. It never chokes on huge files. less -n
Ever try reading 100 or more PDF's in one sitting?
But with 100 ASCII docs, it's possible to skim them fast using less, or mine some text with some UNIX utility.
I like what this judge said. Digitizing books not just about putting the book on a "paper-like" screen with beautiful fonts, it's about enabling new utility. Working with the text.
- chris_mahan 14y agoepub is xhtml+ wrapper
- pyre 14y agoIf you're targeting grep as a tool to operate on your data, then HTML isn't the best 'raw' format as grep isn't HTML-aware. It can't ignore markup, or translate encoded values (e.g. & => &).
- lucian1900 14y agoBut ePub as a format is open and well understood, and there are XHTML parsers in every language you might care about.
- bduerst 14y agoI thought we were talking about viewing ebooks.
- pyre 14y ago> It never chokes on huge files You've never tried to reach the end of a 200MB log file with a cold cache... :P
- bookworm_ 14y agoIt can handle files that big no problem. Use the -n switch to supress page numbering. But with a 200MB file, chances are you will only want to view part of it. Unless you have superhuman reading powers. ;) Dissect the part you want with some filter (sed, awk, tail, whatever) and feed the result to less.
- TeMPOraL 14y ago> Should be a format that can be grep'd, made into PostScript, DejaVu, etc. Versatile. ASCII works well for that. Open, non-proprietary format. Org Mode. http://orgmode.org/ http://orgmode.org/
- hellrich 14y agoI'm in for plaintext, but ASCII is ill suited for most languages.