03-09-2010, 06:27 PM | #31 |
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Epubcheck, like Calibre, is a work in progress. Again like Calibre, I think it is supported by volunteers.
Just because it has limitations is no excuse to not use it. Until something better comes along, I think anyone generating Epubs should use it as the before-mentioned sanity check. And if you don't like the way it works - volunteer some of your time to make it better. Epubs need good tools to reach their potential - and for the moment Epubcheck is the best we have. Robert |
03-09-2010, 07:02 PM | #32 |
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My objection to epubcheck is that it gives the impression that using it means your epub is actually guaranteed to work on anything
To put it another way I would have no objection to epubcheck if it was was named epub-schema-check or if it printed out a big fat disclaimer about how it's checks dont guarantee anything. Or to put it slightly less seriously Circling a banyan tree three times while reciting the English alphabet backwards appeases the God of e-book formatting, so you should always do that immediately after you run epubcheck. Just in case. It can't hurt. Banyan trees are shady, and good for the environment. |
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03-09-2010, 07:15 PM | #33 |
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@rmm200: Are you implying that the fact that a piece of software is developed by volunteers means that it is bound to be mediocre?
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03-09-2010, 08:21 PM | #34 | |
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Are you saying Epubcheck will never be better than mediocre? I am not associated with Epubcheck, but I know the great value of tools like FindBugs (http://findbugs.sourceforge.net/) in the Java arena. There are definite analogies here - and I would consider myself irresponsible as a programmer if I did not use the tools available to me. Robert |
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03-09-2010, 08:31 PM | #35 | |
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In fact I would even happily stipulate it is useful today, I just want to emphasize that it does not perform the function that many people assume it does, that of guaranteeing an EPUB will work. So an EPUB creators job doesn't really end if his EPUB is passed by epubcheck. She needs to actually look at it in a few common EPUB viewers as well. As an illustration, 90% of the code in the calibre EPUB output plugin deals with transforming perfectly valid (as per epubcheck) structures to other perfectly valid structures. Except that the second set of structures have the advantage that they actually work as intended on common EPUB renderers. |
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03-09-2010, 10:42 PM | #36 |
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mypictureshares.com is way too slow. Whoever is using it, please unlink from it. Thanks.
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03-09-2010, 11:41 PM | #37 | |
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03-10-2010, 12:11 AM | #38 |
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Sure, I'll be happy to. Most issues I come up against are typically limitations of this or that EPUB viewer software though. I'm not sure if these are the kinds of issues you want epubcheck to check. If so, I'll be happy to open bug reports for it. Perhaps epubcheck should get a --rendering mode that can be used to check issues that affect rendering on various EPUB viewers.
There's already a long list of these types of issues at http://bugs.calibre-ebook.com/wiki/ADEQuirks that affect Adobe Digital Editions. Most of these issues have probably been fixed in newer ADE releases, but the existence of legacy readers means that EPUB documents need to workaround them to be sure of rendering well on old SONY readers for example. |
03-10-2010, 04:09 AM | #39 | |
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Of course, (nearly) all ePub readers understand Adobe obfusticated fonts, and the most important one, Adobe Digital Editions, doesn't understand IDPF obfusticated ones. Which makes the situation less than optimal. Sigh... I just want to publish an ePub with an embedded fton in a way that satifies the font vendors, and yet doesn't encrypt the text. An obfusticated font is the way to go, but using Adobe obfustication means the file won't pass epubcheck, and so my distributor won't take it, and using IDPF obfustication passes epubcheck, but then the font won't show up for the majority of (current) users! Hopefully ADE will support IDPF obfusticated fonts soon. (Hmm... I seem to be trying to hijack the thread. Apologies.) |
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03-10-2010, 07:29 AM | #40 | ||
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Keep up the good work. Quote:
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03-10-2010, 11:34 AM | #41 |
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The most recent Adobe SDK does implement IDPF method, so you'll see devices that support it pretty soon. But yes, it will take time to filter down.
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03-10-2010, 11:38 AM | #42 | |
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03-10-2010, 11:42 AM | #43 |
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03-10-2010, 11:51 AM | #44 | |
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Of course, Stanza has so many problems that it's probably not worth supporting at all. |
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03-10-2010, 12:41 PM | #45 | |
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I do think Adobe should make it part of the contract that if they use ADE, that it has to be updated so we are not stuck with old ADE when new ADE has bug fixes and other enhancements. Sure, the new ADE supports IDPF font handling. But if a number of Readers do not, then what good is it? |
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