Josh, I can't argue with you -- I've spent years marking up plain text into HTML, because I believe that HTML provides a superior ebook to plain text. (Others may feel free to disagree -- just don't tell me about it.) But PG seems wedded to the idea that there must always be a plain text version, and if we're going to create a plain text from an HTML with images, then where's the problem with retaining at least the location of the images in the plain text? Steve Joshua Hutchinson wrote:
Steve Thomas wrote:
Actually, I took bowerbird's plea to mean simply that he wanted *some* indication in a plain text version of where images appeared, and which image was used. E.g.:
text text
[image: xyz.gif]
text text
This would not seem to be too much to ask, and I think Lynx will do this if you use the -dump option to save HTML as plain text.
Sure, it isn't hard. But neither is HTML markup for the same thing.
[img src="xyz.gif"]
And this has the added benefit of being parse-able (is that a word?) by a whole slew of already existing validators, link-checkers, editors, etc.
It isn't that what bowerbird proposes is impossible to do. It's that it's already been done, and arguably better than he'll do it, simply because there are YEARS of development and more people than I can count behind HTML. ZML has bowerbird and nothing (so far) to show for it.
The bi problem with how bowerbird defines plain text (basically, ASCII letters with some markup for italics, bold, images, etc) also fits HTML/XML. But he claims that HTML/XML don't qualify as plain text. What exactly is different about them? Complexity? Hardly. HTML can be QUITE simple. If all you want is to mark italics, bold, and images, HTML is ridiculously simple.
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-- Stephen Thomas, Senior Systems Analyst, Adelaide University Library ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY SA 5005 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 8 8303 5190 Fax: +61 8 8303 4369 Email: stephen.thomas@adelaide.edu.au URL: http://staff.library.adelaide.edu.au/~sthomas/