oh gee, now jim wants me to paint the walls in the den!
ok, jim, i'll do it, just to prove that i can, but you're gonna
have to learn how to paint yourself, not just keep asking...
***
jim said:
> God help us all if PG were to implement BB’s
> BB-centric view of the world where all of us
> have to support BB, instead of BB writing tools that
> actually help support the creation of good books for PG.
you're looking at output generated by such tools, fool.
> Learn how to use the “Shift” key on your keyboard BB,
> it would helpful in emails, and in such places as in
> your coding of book titles and author names, which
> show up all lower case in your MOBI implementation.
those are in the toc.ncx files, if you're watching at home.
just change the casing if you like, and regenerate the file.
these are test runs; the final version of the converter will
use the titles exactly as they exist in the actual document.
i had to give jim _something_ to complain about, right?
i just wanted to see how low he would stoop for something.
ends up he'll stoop as low as he can. that's good to know...
> Which starts with a gratuitous horizontal rule,
> following a gratuitous “v?”
that "v" is a link to the wc3 validator. i put that in there
once upon a time to make marcello happy. i'll take it out.
(you'll find another one at the bottom of the file, which i
will probably leave in, because it _is_ convenient if you
do want to use the validator; it saves you a lot of hassle.
but yes, the final version of the converter will delete it.)
> Title page lacking in formatting
you'll need to be more specific. what would you like?
> Cover ugly but better than what PG currently provides.
"ugly"? does this mean that you won't be hiring me to
do the cover for your self-published novel, jim? how sad!
> Start marker not implemented.
you can start at the beginning. it won't hurt you.
> Table of Contents not reasonably formatted,
> and contains nonsense page numbers.
again, show me how you want it formatted, and i will
format it the way you show me. as for the page-numbers,
they aren't "nonsense". they match the ones in the .pdf
that was generated by this same input-file, which means
you can meaningfully communicate locations to a person
who happens to be using that .pdf. and if you don't need
that capability, then you can just ignore the page-numbers.
i've taken them out, because you requested the same thing
in the .html version, but you need to rethink your position.
> Gratuitous “Hot” before “Contents” in the Table of Contents
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
if you gave feedback on the .html version, then i made
the changes in the master-format, and those changes will
be implemented in the .mobi when i re-generate the .mobi.
you do understand that's how a master-format works, right?
> Gratuitous double-rule before the TOC
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
> I would think you would want to avoid the use of rules entirely.
> Or fake them using mdashes, for example.)
would anyone care to second jim's suggestion?
because i'm not sure it's a good one, and i would be
inclined to ignore it, unless it enjoys broad support...
again, i took out the rules in the master-file, because that's
what jim suggested, but i won't make it a general practice...
> Gratuitous double-rule before dedication
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
i repeat, i took out all of the rules. i know you _think_
that you're making your list of complaints look more
substantial than it really is, by repeating this repeatedly,
but it actually just shows the opposite, that you have
_nothing_ substantial to say, so you're just blabbering.
> which lacks sensible formatting
show me how you want it formatted, and i'll do it that way.
> and is written in a font which is too small.
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
> Gratuitous double-rule before Chapter headings,
> which lack sensible formatting.
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
> Use of double-dash where mdash is intended,
> and uses spaces around the double-dash
> where PG house rules is no space around mdash.
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
> Gratuitous “@@@” multiple places, left aligned.
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
> Poetry implemented using gratuitously ugly “code” font,
> and not properly formatting into lines of poetry.
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
> “The End” formatted, capitalized, and styled poorly.
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
> Front Cover repeated at the end of the book.
call that the "back cover" if you want. it's an artifact of
the silly requirements necessary to generate a .mobi file.
> Gratuitous “v?” repeated at end of the book.
you said that earlier. there's no need to repeat it here.
> Table of contents repeated at end of the book.
same silly mobi requirements. _but_ it's not a bad idea
to have a table of contents at the end of a book as well,
because that's a very convenient location to navigate to.
> Front Cover repeated yet again at the end of the book.
silly mobi.
> Other than that, this very simple book
> (from the point of view of formatting and style)
> consists simply of words formatted into paragraphs,
> with occasional italics, and
> you get that aspect of the book correct, fortunately.
well, yes, jim, and -- in that particular respect --
it's much like most of the books you do for p.g.
take, for instance, that #29452 which you created...
i find you used tags for breaks, headings, paragraphs,
and italics... you also used the entity for an em-dash...
and that's it! that's all the markup you used! so i guess
that's why you recognize an easy book when you see one.
so let's see you do all the .pdf variations i asked for on
this simple book. then we can move on to harder ones.
***
jim said:
> I don’t need to give them such a tool because
> they were given such a tool free with their computer.
maybe they don't have a computer. they read on their phone.
> Nonsense BB, I have already showed you
> how customers can overcome this problem
> you are making, but you choose to ignore my suggestion.
no, it is _you_ who is ignoring the fact that
your second recommendation contradicted
the very essence of your first recommendation.
> There now, we are getting to the real rub:
> Apple made a device which they claim to be
no jim, no way, you're not going to squirm out of this by
taking this thread into an unproductive rant about apple.
this is about _you_, and your suggestion that p.g. should
use _html_ as their master-format. that is the topic now.
i'm showing you all the problems with that suggestion,
and why it is entirely unworkable, and why you should
_never_ come back to this listserve and suggest it again.
because that suggestion is a waste of time and energy,
and only serves to distract people from better directions.
-bowerbird
