marcello said:

Lets mercifully overlook the fact that you have stolen my XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"stolen"? this material is in the public domain.

you did not take the `raw' Alice from gutenberg.org as basis for your zml file

of course not. that file doesn't have styled text. you went and created a version that identified the text in italics, but didn't share it with people. now it will be shared. but surely you don't think you're the only person in the whole world who has styled that text, do you?

but you took the TXT file which was generated from a PGTEI master by the PGTEI converter ...

you don't want to admit the point, so there's little use in restating it, but the point is that, given the dirt-simple rules of z.m.l., plain-text is fully capable of expressing the structure that is necessary to transform this text into a very-high-powered e-book. since this is a relatively straightforward book, with few complications, that's to be expected. but as time goes on, i will also share examples of books that are much more complicated too.

you still have just posted two files. You have not demonstrated that the one file was algorithmically derived from the other. To do this you would have to post the source code (or at least a working executable) of your zml converter for us to see.

i won't be posting any source-code, so don't hold your breath. but if anyone has any difficulty seeing how the plain-text file can be analyzed to "algorithmically derive" its .html brother, do please feel free to ask me, and i will 'splain it to you promptly. *** now, marcello, i really gave you some calm and friendly advice when i told you that your best course of action is to be quiet... i am going to methodically show heavy markup is unnecessary to maintain the project gutenberg library of e-texts, so you can yelp like a little girl when i do it, to try your best to interrupt me, or you can sit back and learn something instead. take your pick... -bowerbird