yesterday, we compared the .html version
from my converter with the one up at p.g.,
and found they were substantially similar.

today's mission is to compare the _.mobi_
version that i created with the p.g. version.

i once expected to get the same conclusion:
that my version was as good as the p.g. one.

but that's not the case.  my version is better.

you can download the p.g. .mobi here:
>   http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16736

here's my .mobi:
>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/ukagl.mobi
>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/ukagl.mobi.zip
>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/ukagl-folder.zip

the p.g. .mobi has problems, mainly caused
by that "tag abuse" we discussed yesterday...

you can see the glitches in these screenshots:

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi001.jpg

right off the bat, we have that ugly p.g. legalese...
the top of a book should be a pleasant coverpage,
for a good first impression, not preformatted crap.

but there's a bigger problem sitting here as well...
this screenshot of the book is on a 23-inch screen.
yet the titlepage is not being shown in its entirety.
heck, not even the _author_name_ is being shown;
we are just being tormented by a teaser "by" line...

we have to go to the second screen to get the rest...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi002.jpg

...and then we get the bottom half of the titlepage,
and the verso, and the dedication, and the first part
of the table-of-contents, which appears in a jumble.
at the least, we need to have some separator lines...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi003.jpg

the third screen shows the rest of the t.o.c. jumble...
the links _do_ work, so there is a redeeming quality.
but obviously, we don't want things looking like that.

and then chapter 1 starts right underneath the t.o.c.

we really want a new chapter to start on a new screen.
but due to the improper tagging of chapter-headers,
the viewer-program doesn't know that "chapter 1" is
the start of a new chapter, so it simply blunders on...

so we have the same problem throughout the book,
where a new chapter doesn't start on a fresh screen.

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi004.jpg

but it gets worse.  sometimes the chapter-header is
located at the _bottom_ of a screen, with the first line
of the chapter located on the _next_ screen.  not good.

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi005.jpg

even _one_ line from the next chapter looks weird...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi006.jpg

but what's _even_more_weird_ is when the 2 parts of
the chapter-header get split apart by a screen-break...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi007.jpg
>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi008.jpg

taking a short break from the chapter-header flaws,
we see the book's first blockquote on image #9...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi009.jpg

the kindle doesn't do an indent on the right side, so
the indent on the left side probably should be bigger.
right now, it's about the same as a first-line indent...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi010.jpg

image #10 here shows the book's second blockquote,
where we again see the left-indent should be bigger.

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi011.jpg

and now we're back to the chapter-header glitches...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi012.jpg

image #13 shows a stranded line at the screen's top.

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi013.jpg

another header problem...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi014.jpg

another stranded line, this time at screen-bottom.

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi015.jpg

and another split-in-two chapter-header...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi016.jpg
>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi017.jpg

and a stranded line -- with one word! -- at the top.

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi018.jpg

and oh gee, yet another split chapter-header...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi019.jpg
>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi020.jpg

and another isolated one...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi021.jpg

and one more split one...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi022.jpg
>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi023.jpg

and, on the last screen of the book, a stranded line.

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi024.jpg

so wow, those are a lot of glitches, unfortunately...

my .mobi has occasional glitches too -- crap happens
in the kindle reader-app -- but not nearly as many...

the kindle app _consistently_ has widow/orphan flaws.

but these problems were indeed caused by the fact
the converter just didn't know the chapter-headers.

most e-book designers start a chapter on a new screen.
if the auto-converter had accurately known the headers,
it wouldn't have had all those problems with the headers
appearing at, or being broken by, the bottom of a screen.

but, of course, to begin a new chapter on a new screen,
you must be able to _recognize_ that it's a new chapter.

and, because of the funky .css and .html tagging used
in this "snowflake" edition, the converter failed to see
the chapter-headers, thus causing a raft of glitches...

my .mobi starts a new chapter on a fresh screen, so
it had no glitches of this type.  now, some of you will
undoubtedly be dismissing these glitches as "cosmetic".

and there's something to that argument, i'll grant you.

but, on the other hand, shouldn't the books look good?

and, furthering that, we certainly do not want the books
to have cosmetic flaws because we did something dumb!

seriously.  this book consists of headers and paragraphs.
that's all!  and the headers got screwed up.  pretty sad...
i mean, i guess we can be happy because the paragraphs
aren't screwed up too.  that would be worse.  but _still_...

moreover, this header problem is _not_ just skin-deep.

you can spot a real red flag if you take a look at the
table-of-contents which gets listed under the menu...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi025.jpg

sure enough, those were the lines _tagged_ as headers
-- incorrectly -- so you can't blame the converter-tool.

the serious problems in this .mobi are due to the .html.

also under that menu, we can summon up the "cover"...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi026.jpg

oops...  that's the generic cover, for all p.g. books,
in the kindle viewer-app.  kind of embarrassing, eh?
what is that, anyway?  a picture of some 1999 p.d.a.?

and let's view that jumbled in-line t.o.c. once again...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi027.jpg

again, that's pretty embarrassing.

finally, here's what a jump to a chapter looks like...

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/bac-mobi028.jpg

that's caused by putting the anchor in the wrong place.

whew!  lotta messed up stuff there...

which brings us to this restatement of our conclusion:
the serious problems in this .mobi are due to the .html.

so all in all, when it came to anything that wasn't just a
plain old paragraph, this .mobi came out looking bad...

that's a pretty sorry situation.

and this book was easy!  no good reason to screw it up!

anyway, if you feel i've been too harsh on this .mobi,
feel free to reciprocate by taking it out on _my_ mobi.

>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/ukagl.mobi
>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/ukagl.mobi.zip
>   http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/ukagl-folder.zip

i would love to hear any criticism you might have...

-bowerbird