One advantage that I can see to having a true "master format" system in place is that for the 99% of that don't need or care about the original works page numbering, we can download a version where those are stripped out.
<div><br /></div>
<div>But, if someone is doing some academic paper (or is just *really* into page numbering!), they can elect to download a version where the page numbers are (intrusively) left inline if that is what their device supports ... or floating in the margin if that is what their device supports ...</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>And in ten years, when some new issue with display is rampant that we haven't thought of yet, instead of arguing about redoing old works again, someone will need to write a new conversion filter and everything in the library is fixed.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>That, in my opinion, is the true gift of a master format. &nbsp;</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Write once ... fix many.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Josh<br /><br />
<p>On Feb 3, 2012, <strong>don kretz</strong> &lt;dakretz@gmail.com&gt; wrote:</p>
<div class="replyBody">
<blockquote class="email_quote" style="border-left: 2px solid #267fdb; margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 1.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">If you have floats, you can use inset page numbers with spans and an appropriate
<div>stylesheet.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<div>But fundamentally what you're running into, and I don't know how you avoid it if you</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>insist on XML/XHTML, is that books simply aren't well-formed in the way that</div>
<div>XML defines and requires. You can't embed everything 100% in all its containers.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Page numbers are a reflection of this problem, because conceptually they are</div>
<div>boundaries between page elements. But page elements simply aren't well-formed</div>
<div>because their tops and bottoms can cut right through paragraphs (and everything</div>
<div>within which paragraphs are embredded.)</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>I think what happened to some devices is that they had to decide between</div>
<div>supporting HTML and XHTML, and since writers can't be constrained to</div>
<div>create well-formed XML documents (nor should they be), the devices</div>
<div>&nbsp;had to choose HTML.</div>
<br />
<hr size="1" />
<br />_______________________________________________<br />gutvol-d mailing list<br /><a class="parsedEmail" href="mailto:gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org" target="_blank">gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org</a><br /><a class="parsedLink" href="http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo/gutvol-d" target="_blank">http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo/gutvol-d</a><br /></blockquote>
</div>
</div>