Re: epub init file, and questions

[Per Bothner]

On 12/25/21 09:06, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> Hello,
>
> In the source there is now an init file epub3.pm to generate an epub
> container, targetting epub 3.2.  In tp/init/epub3.pm.

Haven't tried it yet - but thanks!

> Some questions for those knowledgable in epub:

I don't have a lot of experience or knowledge of epub readers,
so take this response as very tentative.

> * is it better to have split or non split files for epub?

Is there any reason not to treat this like html output?
I.e. honor the --split and --no-split options in the same way?

> * I did not output any header, so no mini_toc nor node
>    directions.  Also no horizontal rules.  Is it how it should be?

Those seems reasonable.  An e-reader can supply extra mini-tocs or
lines, or adding using stylesheet (or JavaScript).  Of course that also applies
to web documentation, too, so perhaps such things should be optional
for html, too.

> * should the navigation nav category TOC be used as a table of contents?
>    I do not think so since it uses <ol> which looks strange.

That can be fixed with styling.  I'm not very concerned about how things
look without css, as long as it's not too horrible.

> * how are indices handled in epub?
> * how are cross manual references handled in epub?
> * how are list of tables/floats handled in epub?

Until we find a reason not to, just do like you would for web pages.

I tend to think of the js-info interface as a simple but functional
e-reader.  It seems useful and reasonable to include info.js in
an epub document.  You should be able to unzip an epub (or use a web server
that does so on-the-fly); if you then browse to the top page, you
should get an experience more-or-less the same as browsing plain html,
including using info.js if that was included.

--
        --Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/