On Sat, Oct 09, 2004 at 06:50:38PM +0200, Karl Eichwalder wrote:
Jeroen Hellingman <jeroen@bohol.ph> writes:
I am a big supporter of XML, but I challenge you to automatically create an acceptible ASCII version from one of my XML files without manual intervention...
Don't waste your time on so called ASCII version. Simple HTML as a replacement for the traditional ASCII version is "good enough" - then tools like lynx or w3m or links(?) can do the dirty work. I do not know whether there are special HTML device for the blind; but I know some of them use lynx to browse (parts of) the web.
One small warning, they have loads of tables and other challenging stuff. I think it can be done, but it is far from trivial.
First, these text browser can display tables and if this is not good enough, you can always press a magic key and view the HTML source.
Of course, if people want to spend their time on ASCII versions, it is their business. But the XML version must be the source for all other formats.
I'm just writing to point out that Karl's statements are not consistent with how Project Gutenberg processes and distributes eBooks. See more in our FAQ at gutenberg.net In short: - we *require* plain text, except in cases where the format, language or other aspects make it impossible or highly difficult As Jeroen mentioned, we're anxious to have an automatic transformation from XML to HTML and from XML to plain text. These have proven more difficult than expected, although both Jeroen & Marcello have solutions that are pretty good. People who think they know how to accomplish this task should send a URL to documentation & a demonstration. -- Greg PS: People who want PDF-only, XML-only, HTML-only, TeX-only, etc. are welcome to start their own projects. PG might even be willing to license our name to you (more on this in http://gutenberg.net/about).