Gutenberg9443@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 10/27/2005 2:30:15 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, jon@noring.name writes:

Marcello asked: > Lee Passey wrote:

>> the OpenReader format is likely to be a relatively minor variation >> on the existing OEBPS format.

Please pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference between OEBFF and OEBPS? Or is this something that I probably can't understand even when it is explained?

Anne

The OEBPS is the Open EBook Publication Structure (http://www.idpf.org/oebps/oebps1.2/download/oeb12-xhtml.htm). The OEBFF is the proposed Open EBook File Format (http://web.archive.org/web/20000926004335/www.nuvomedia.com/oebff/OEBFile1DR...). Rarely is the alphabet alone sufficient to create an e-book. Usually, to provide the maximum reading experience a digital publication needs to include markup suggesting how the text should be presented, and may include non-textual items, such as illustrations or cover art. Additionally, it is helpful if a digital publication contains information _about_ the publication which is technically not part of the publication itself; this information is typically referred to as "metadata." The author's identity, publication date, rights assertions and even the Gutenberg boilerplate text are all examples of metadata. The Open EBook Publication Structure is an invention of the Open eBook Forum (now International Digital Publishing Forum, in recognition of the fact that it's not really open). The OEBPS provides a framework for creating a digital publication and specifies the structure of an OEBPS Package File (.opf) which ties all the various pieces of a complete digital publication together and combines them with important metadata. The OEBPS "does _not_ define means for physically bundling files together to make one data transfer object (such as using zip or tar)." (emphasis mine) The OEBFF is a file format proposed by Garth Conboy and John Rivlin, now of eBook Technologies, which uses the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) to physically (well, conceptually) bundle OEBPS files together into a single file. I believe that the OEBFF is the file format used natively by the eBook Technologies ETI-1 and ETI-2 reading devices. Thus, OEBPS and OEBFF are not competing standards, but are, in fact, complementary technologies: the OEBPS describes one way of defining how multiple files can be combined to create a single digital publication, and the OEBFF describes one way of encapsulating those component files into a single file for subsequent transfer or use.