On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 08:32:15PM +0100, Marcello Perathoner wrote:
On 01/31/2012 09:22 AM, Greg Newby wrote:
I. making changes to the master file(s) [let's imagine that we retain the practice of every PG eBook having a small number of master files, in a small number of master formats]. The short list of master formats includes RST, HTML, TeX/TEI, and plain text (perhaps with light markup). Maybe this list will grow in the future; maybe it will shrink.
Having more than one master format per book does not make sense. Decide which format is best for that book and stick to it. Every typo should have exactly one location that needs fixing.
In principal I agree. In practice, we often have 2 (HTML + text). I don't think it's is very burdensome to edit 2 files rather than 1.
II. from those master files, various other file formats can be [and are, currently] derived automatically. These include EPUB, Kindle variants, variations on HTML or text (especially if they were not previously provided), RTF, and a few others. Again, maybe this list will grow, maybe it will shrink. I do hope to offer conversion on-demand, which will let people select conversion options, and maybe even different conversion programs, for their purposes.
Conversion on demand will not be possible with the cycles available at ibiblio. If you want that, you'll have to organize some very beefy servers that do nothing but crunch books.
I guess we need to find someone who runs a supercomputing center or something... seriously, I do not see this as an impediment, though you are right to point out that even a modest bump in consumption at ibiblio might make us unsustainable with their current server farm. -- Greg