Hi Jim, Am 13.12.2011 um 14:38 schrieb Jim Adcock:
Keith> 1) ... The space between two paragraphs is just one space. It is not divided between top and bottom! As far as getting the correct space between the different entities of a book it is all in the math.
Agreed that the space between paragraphs is just one space but since not every paragraph is proceeded and/or followed by a a paragraph it became easier for HTML writers to be able to specify top and bottom margins separately, and for HTML browsers to automagically "merge" those margins when a paragraph *was* adjacent to a paragraph. One can "do it all" by just specifying top-margins (and that is what Amazon says you should be doing) it's just somewhat more painful to specify things that way. I do care what Amazon says! It is simple wrong. As for top and bottom margins it is simple wrong to use them! I said it is all in the math. Just because author are to lazy and do not how to do it. It is quite a bit of work to get layout correct. This is not a problem of HTML but all layout done by lay persons using diverse tools and programs. They have not learn how to do it properly nor can they know how to implement proper layout. What most do not understand there is not just one layout/styles for a paragraph. You need multiple layouts. There is no one fits all. Like I have been saying, one has to know how to layout a book in the first place before you can start laying out an ebook with a tool or program.
regards Keith.
2) As you rightly mention most do not understand the semantics of HTML and CSS. Also, in the light the above how do expect them to code the spacing correctly.
This is a chicken-and-the-egg problem. The volunteer transcribers have to have *some* understanding of what they are doing [and why] in order to be able to do it. [And PG, institutionally speaking, is not providing that guidance.] Unfortunately, 99.999% of the HTML documentation and books (and tools) one can find out there have little or nothing to do with the "PG" and ebook tasks at hand, and unfortunately more to do with "fixed layout" HTML "home pages" such as one sees if one for example goes to the home page of amazon.com. Again there are a handful of "ebook" oriented texts out there like Elizabeth Castro, Rufus Deuchler, and Joshua Tallent, but then these tend to swing immediately into issues of Adobe InDesign hacking, which is also not helpful....
3) The inferior implementation of HTML and CCS in the ereaders. This is something which is beyond out control.
My claim is that it is generally really not necessary to exercise all the excesses of HTML nor all the shortcomings in the ereaders in order to create high-quality transcriptions of most of the books that are out there. I think the real problem is the tendency of all of us to try to "prove" we are uber-geeks leads many to try to out-geek all the others when it comes to the complexity of the HTML code being submitted. Now mind you, there *are* legitimately *some* very complicated and technical books being submitted -- such as mathematical texts -- but neither txt70 nor HTML is really suitable for these books in the first place.
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