travis said:
>   I'm not saying labeling buttons couldn't be done later,
>   but I am saying that if you ignore possible accessibility
>   issues now, you'll wind up with a product that is (at best)
>   a pain to use for those who need accessible applications,
>   and (at worst) a completely useless piece of software,
>   because their screen reader won't work with it, or they
>   can't resize text, or something else that is dead simple to
>   incorporate at the start, but nearly impossible to
>   reverse engineer into the product when it's complete.

if you see something that is dead simple to incorporate
at the start, but nearly impossible to put in at a later time,
do let me know about that, because i do want to avoid that.

but, as you said, labeling buttons doesn't fall in that category.


>   Is there really a need to do all that? Not complaining,
>   only wondering myself.  Screen readers don't generally
>   take well to upper ascii characters. 

here, too, we're only displaying functionality, for those who
_want_ such a thing.  curly-quotes and "proper" em-dashes
will not be _forced_ on anyone who don't want to have them.


>   Which (I thought) was exactly what xml was supposed to be
>   used for.  (not complaining about the use of zml, only
>   pointing out that other options already exist.'

except those "other options" do _not_ "already exist", not in
a form project gutenberg can use to facilitate its workflow...

and if you think you can develop such a thing, then please do,
because project gutenberg has been seeking you for a decade.
nobody else has been able to create such a solution for them.


>   Which a simple nl2br would solve nicely if this were php. :)
>   Again, not finding fault, simply pointing out another method.
>   I've never tackled something of this complexity, but
>   perhaps a  second app written in php would be a good way
>   to compare and contrast different ways of doing things.
>   Of course, it could wind up being an exercise in futility, but
>   heck, I'm always willing to help, and php is what I know, so ...

another version of this written in php would be totally cool,
and an excellent example of the type of collaboration that
i am looking for.  i will be happy to provide code fragments
that help you when you get stuck, and give general guidance
to help keep you from getting stuck much in the first place...

i myself have done a version of this in perl, and i'm sure that
doing one in python would be quite simple as well, so i invite
you to jump in with your php too -- the water's fine...

-bowerbird