EPUB for Lazarus help?

[fygul]

EPUB has better Unicode support then CHM
It's a free and open e-book standard

It could be a good alternative for CHM

Several references about EPUB:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB
• http://www.idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-overview.html
• Sigil, The EPUB Editor: http://code.google.com/p/sigil/

[nsunny]

Then an EPUB reader software will also be needed to view them.

[marcov]

EPUB has better Unicode support then CHM
It's a free and open e-book standard

CHM is not an ebook standard, it is an helpfile system.

LIT is the ebook standard based on CHM technology.
 

[fygul]

EPUB has better Unicode support then CHM
It's a free and open e-book standard

CHM is not an ebook standard, it is an helpfile system.

LIT is the ebook standard based on CHM technology.

I meant epub is an open standard.

I wonder the specification from idpf.org maybe let epub become a good helpfile system.

[fygul]

calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application (includes readers).
It supports many e-book formats: azw, azw1, cbr, cbz, chm, epub, fb2, html, imp, lit, lrf, lrx, mobi, odt, oebzip, opf, pdb, pdf, pml, pmlz, prc, rar, rb, rtf, snb, tpz, txt.

Other open source epub readers are also available.

[marcov]

I know EPUB and calibre( I have a reader), and it is just a html zip.

It is however document oriented, and not lemma oriented like help.

[Graeme]

It could be a good alternative for CHM
Several references about EPUB:

I had a look once at extending fpdoc to support EPUB, and it really wouldn't be that hard. EPUB is pretty much HTML+CSS, but the layou organised in a book form (like the existing PDF, INF, RTF outputs). I wouldn't really use it for API documentation purposes (I much prefer the INF output format for that), but having EPUB versions of the Free Pascal Language Reference documentation etc would be very nice [but that is not a fpdoc format, rather LaTeX].

[marcov]

It could be a good alternative for CHM
Several references about EPUB:

I had a look once at extending fpdoc to support EPUB, and it really wouldn't be that hard. EPUB is pretty much HTML+CSS, but the layou organised in a book form (like the existing PDF, INF, RTF outputs). I wouldn't really use it for API documentation purposes (I much prefer the INF output format for that), but having EPUB versions of the Free Pascal Language Reference documentation etc would be very nice [but that is not a fpdoc format, rather LaTeX].

Sure, but that could be tackled the same way the latex manuals are converted to CHM.  Easier even, since there is an editor for epub. Just try to create epub from the html with sigil.

Of course, the next step would be to write a proper converter to automate the conversion. (and make improvements to toc+index).  Anyway, I have an ereader, but am not really convinced this is really great to work with manuals. (specially searching etc). Maybe it is better with tablet based reader apps though.

[Graeme]

Sure, but that could be tackled the same way the latex manuals are converted to CHM.

When it comes to text, as in documentation, I am very fussy with layout. I only like high quality formating. The HTML to CHM conversion creates terrible looking documents. I refuse to use that. CHM is not the problem, but the conversion process is. The existing HTML fpdoc text converted to EPUB, will look terrible too.  A new output writer needs to be created.

Anyway, I have an ereader, but am not really convinced this is really great to work with

My iPad works very well reading A4, and even better A5, size PDFs. EBooks work pretty good too. I use my iPad to reference the FPC Language Reference docs while working at my desk. INF format while on the move, or for API reference.

[marcov]

Sure, but that could be tackled the same way the latex manuals are converted to CHM.

When it comes to text, as in documentation, I am very fussy with layout. I only like high quality formating. The HTML to CHM conversion creates terrible looking documents. I refuse to use that. CHM is not the problem, but the conversion process is. The existing HTML fpdoc text converted to EPUB, will look terrible too.  A new output writer needs to be created.

As usual your ignorance shows. The Latex manuals are converted to chm.  The fpdoc ones aren't.  There is a chm specific outputwriter that inherits from a common base html writer. THe same would happen with epub. The quality of the output depends on your requirements and the amount of work you want to invest in it.

My iPad works very well reading A4, and even better A5, size PDFs. EBooks work pretty good too. I use my iPad to reference the FPC Language Reference docs while working at my desk.

My main concern was searching, not viewing. epub will work fine on my ereader too, and probably mostly textual PDF too.  It would maybe be wise to create a A5 set of manuals for testing.


INF format while on the move, or for API reference.

I thought the INF reader had a horrible unnative user interface. One can't take something like that seriously

[Graeme]

As usual your ignorance shows. The Latex manuals are converted to chm.  The fpdoc ones aren't.  There is a chm specific outputwriter that inherits from a common base html writer. THe same would happen with epub. The quality of the output depends on your requirements and the amount of work you want to invest in it.

And your arrogance hasn't changed since we last spoke.  The Latex manuals are converted to chm - using a LaTeX to HTML conversion process. It looks terrible in CHM, just as it does in the online versions! It doesn't come close to the PDF versions. Hence I manually converted (rewrote) the FPC Lang Ref to INF - making sure formatting is good, and added some special bits to take advantage of INF & DocView. As for your fpdoc to CHM - it again uses the HTML writer, which was designed for desktop web browsers. Lots of the content generated doesn't work in any CHM viewer. Again resulting in terrible user experience.

You simple don't get it. Appearance is everything! Most people judge something by appearances alone - if that gives them a bad vibe, they are not going to delve any deeper. So even though the documentation content is excellent the CHM presentation looks terrible.

[marcov]

You simple don't get it. Appearance is everything!

You don't get it. Appearance is not something absolute. You simply elevate what you like to an universally accepted taste, and then try to paint some picture where mine is deviant :-)

Which is a bit strange since you obviously have peculiar taste (fpgui, the INF client)

Most people judge something by appearances alone -

Yes. But by how it appears TO THEM, not necessarily your concept of appearance. You need to stop dishing out your taste as absolute measure of all tastes.