From: Bruce E. Durocher II (bedii_at_qwest.net)
Date: Wed Apr 07 2004 - 07:55:59 PDT
On Apr 6, 2004, at 7:26 PM, John Charlton wrote:
> On Apr 06, 2004, at 11:39, Bruce E. Durocher II wrote:
>
>> Below you'll see my e-mails with the gent who owns the site. As you
>> can see, he's perfectly willing to include automatic etext conversion
>> for the Newton again: he just needs an OS X native tool to handle it.
>
> I'm wondering if he'd open the code he previously used to create
> NewtonBooks. Sounds as though he had it automated (i.e. "on-the-fly")
> rather than by hand on demand (i.e. "wait-a-day-or-two").
Well, he didn't offer to open the code when I e-mailed him but instead
expressed interest in adding Newton support again, so I suspect he'd
prefer to keep doing it himself, but you could always contact him and
ask him.
It was on the fly, all right--I remember that "Huckleberry Finn" took
about one minute to convert because it was a long text...
> If it was
> automatic I'm sure one of our talented programmers could Carbonize and
> enhance it for OS X.
If it involved running Apple's tools, he may not want to keep Classic
running in the background just for an occasional conversion. I suspect
that's why he needed an OS X native tool.
>> He suggests a rewritten Paperback which I seem to remember had been
>> discussed on the list previously--that David Fedor wasn't hostile but
>> didn't want to write a new version.
>
> Again, if that format is more amenable to auto-generation that might be
> a better route.
Well, the procedure for book creation in Paperback certainly seemed
straightforward enough to be done with Applescript when I looked at it
some time ago, but I don't remember the details well enough to
guarantee it..
> A third option is to create a new 'standard' for text books on the
> Newton. Would it be so hard? Or would it simply make more sense to use
> Newtscape to read simple HTML-formatted text, creating a book (with a
> book's enhanced abilities) when necessary. How /does/ Newtscape create
> a book anyway? Is it privy to some internal function or does Steve know
> something he's not letting on?
For that, you'll have to ask Steve.
Bruce E. Durocher II
bedii_at_qwest.net
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