Joshua Hutchinson wrote:
Granted, the openreader proposal is well documented and from what little I've seen, well-thought out.
BUT...
It is still nothing more than a proposal because no one can really DO anything with it.
Let me draw a parallel. The MPEG standards were first a proposal (draft) and then a crude implementation was created by the group. It was by no means a fully realized application, but it was enough that people could see what the heck the long dreary draft was talking about. THEN other groups created bazillion different implementations that we have today.
Put together a crude OpenReader compliant application so that people can see what the heck it is.
I suspect we are in violent agreement on this point. The OpenReader proposal is even now in the early stages of exactly the same historical process you have described for the MPEG standard. The proposal has been made, and is being discussed. The very announcement that started this thread is an indication that a first implementation is being worked on. The Thout Reader developed by OSoft is, in fact, an open-source, GPLed, User Agent written in Java (see http://sourceforge.net/projects/thout/). Of course, as the new Thout Reader develops, some content will have to be made available in the new format so that the implementation can be tested, but I suspect that will be easy enough seeing as how the OpenReader format is likely to be a relatively minor variation on the existing OEBPS format. My only point is that the OR format should not be dismissed merely because it is still early in the process, and that those people who believe that a standardized format is a good idea should step up to the plate and support the format _now_ to improve the likelihood that it will become a widely adopted standard in the future.