lee said:
>   The µBook ebook reader can do that right now
>   (PG simplified text looks really good in µBook).

so µbook has upgraded the project gutenberg e-texts
from "impoverished text format" to "p.g. simplified text"?
that's good news to hear.  imagine what a more powerful
viewer-app might do for the reputation of these e-texts...


>   (PG simplified text looks really good in µBook).
>   I can't see why this particular wheel needs re-inventing.

you know, lee, over the many years, i've heard you
say a lot of smart things.  and a few dumb things too.
this statement has to be one of your dumbest ever...

you point me -- a mac user -- to a pc-only program,
and then suggest that by writing the same type of app,
i am "reinventing the wheel"?   what a silly thing to say.

but let me reassure you that i am not stopping there at
the viewer-program.  no sir, that's only the first step...

if you take a look at my viewer now, it already contains
several features that give the reader a sense of mastery
over the document, like a multiple-term search routine.

and i'll extend those features greatly, offering things like
automatic generation of a concordance and kwic feature.

none of these features is available in any other viewer.

but as i said, i'm not stopping there...

i've gone to the next step -- writing the authoring-tool --
a number of times.  that's the more important program;
until someone creates e-books, readers can't read 'em.

and tomorrow, i will upload "banana-cream", a demo that
shows how a reader might incorporate on-line scans into
their e-book experience.  i expect people who know how to
digitize paper-books will realize this app can help them too.

but i have gone way past that step as well.  my research
has examined the question of how to put many thousands
of e-books on a person's machine in a manageable way
which maximizes the potential obtained from all of them.
(this arena includes realms like searching and interlinking.)

i have also studied the best way to form and use a "database"
of the various things that a person has read on their computer
(not just e-books, but e-mail and websites and what have you),
so you can quickly and easily pull out anything you have read,
even if you don't remember when you read it, or its source...

this power to recall anything you've ever read (provided that
you read it on your computer) will be a revolutionary spark...

so i'm not "reinventing the wheel".  i'm reinventing 18 of 'em,
and putting them under a big rig, so i can roll down the road...

i'm not standing still, lee.  you shouldn't either...

-bowerbird