Xavier, Jeremy, JD, WOW. This is very impressive. I have been considering how I would "re-present" a PDF/ebook as a Tiddlywiki and this exceeds most of what I came up with!
To springboard from Morgaine's comment about choose-you-own-adventure books, I specifically was thinking about how to present RPG Source Books (Adventure-Modules, Monser-Manuals, etc) as Tiddlywiki plugins. I noticed the Dynannotate plugin while updating my fork of the TW5 repository, but didn't have the context for the project. I would love to discuss this more, as I think it would eventually be worth approaching the couple of RPG publishing companies I have friends at (one of which is a brand new french-language brand). Synchronicities abound. ;) Best, Joshua Fontany On Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 12:18:42 PM UTC-7, Morgaine O'Herne wrote: > > Tiddlywiki would be perfect for choose-your-own-adventure books! > > > On Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at 4:33:57 AM UTC-6, Xavier Cazin wrote: >> >> Hi everyone, >> >> TL;DR: Go to >> https://www.7switch.com/fr/ebook/9783962558772/great-expectations-serapis-classics, >> >> click on "Read an extract" and play with it. Then come back if you'd like >> to know more. >> >> I have been working in the publishing industry for the past 25 years, >> including the last 10 years as the co-founder of a French ebook >> distribution company, *immatériel.fr <http://xn--immatriel-f4a.fr>*. >> Among many things that got me frustrated in the course of selling ebooks is >> the fact that ebook formats have never been in phase with how we have >> linked ourselves to knowledge in the two last decades. >> >> >> The main reason for this particular failure is because ePub and >> Mobipocket were initially (around 2010) imposed to publishers by Apple and >> Amazon respectively, and became soon the only digital formats that >> publishers could sell to the main vendors (actually, Google Play Books also >> sells PDF books). >> >> While there are other reasons to rant about the current state of the >> ebook market, I gave some thought about what could be a likeable modern >> format for eBooks, and as you guessed, TiddlyWiki checked all the boxes: >> >> 1. the book should be easy to open: the reading app could be the same >> browser that you used to buy the book, whether you are on your mobile or >> at >> your desktop; >> 2. it should be readable both offline or online; >> 3. it should open at the same place where you stopped reading last >> time; >> 4. typesetting should be as beautiful and complex as a website can be; >> 5. content should be truly multimedia, including live content from >> anywhere on the network. Audio books should be a mere byproduct of this >> feature; >> 6. authors should be allowed to multiply standpoints on its content; >> 7. readers should be able to reorganise the initial content, and also >> write above and around it; >> 8. for the paranoids out there or those who missed Tim O'Reilly's >> famous piece on piracy >> >> <https://www.oreilly.com/content/piracy-is-progressive-taxation-and-other-thoughts-on-the-evolution-of-online-distribution/> >> >> back in the days, book content should be easy to encrypt. Ebooks lending >> to >> libraries might actually be a good use case. >> >> So we at *immatériel.fr <http://xn--immatriel-f4a.fr>* considered that >> this territory was worth exploring and we dedicated our 2019 R&D efforts >> into building a TW5 alternative format for customers who were regularly >> buying ePubs at our experimental bookstore *7switch.com >> <http://7switch.com>*. We had to move forward on two fronts in parallel: >> >> - Converting our full catalog of 80K ePubs from more than 1000 >> (mostly French) publishers into TW5 >> - Figuring a way to display books in an homogeneous way, yet familiar >> enough for both people reading content on the Web and people used to ePub >> reading apps, while showing off their new TiddlyWiki nature. >> >> So I asked *Jeremy* if he'd welcome a sponsoring for such a project >> through his company *Federatial* and, to my awe, he said yes of course! >> Parallely, since I wasn't sure of how we should render the typical book >> elements nor the typical features of an ebook reading app in a TW5 >> interface, I asked *JD*, one of our gifted community contributors to TW5 >> user interfaces, for ideas and preliminary tests. >> >> >> Soon enough, the three of us had regular meetings, that eventually led to >> a *preliminary release* of several great open source products that are >> now embedded into every non-DRM books and extracts that you'll find at the >> *7switch* ebookstore: >> >> 1. The first one is already included in the current prerelease of >> TW5: the dynaview plugin >> >> <https://tiddlywiki.com/prerelease/#%24%3A%2Fplugins%2Ftiddlywiki%2Fdynaview> >> >> allows content to come into view dynamically in response to familiar >> gestures like scrolling. >> 2. Next comes the *dynannotate* plugin, which will soon make its way >> to 5.1.22, and is already included in books and extracts that you can >> find >> on *7switch*. With it, you can annotate content in a various number >> of ways. >> 3. Then you'll find the *ePub-slicer* plugin, a tool to convert any >> ePub file into a plugin that essentially contains a list of small content >> chunks (aka tiddlers!) which can be revealed during the scroll as you >> read >> the book in the browser. Thanks to their plugin nature, not only multiple >> converted books can be hosted in a single TW5 file, but also one can >> override book content without fear, since the original shadow tiddlers >> could be retrieved at any time. Note that the HTML parsing is not yet >> complete, as we'd like to be able to parse any ePub, whether their >> content >> has been well semantised or not. So if you see spurious </li> or >> </blockquote> every once in a while, don't be surprised: *you're >> looking at a work in progress*. >> 4. Finally, you'll also find JD's *TW Book Wrapper* plugin, which is >> responsible for most specific UI elements, from annotations management to >> the automatic language switching, based on your browser default language. >> By the way, we started with French and English as built-in interface >> languages. If you'd like to submit more translations, you're welcome! >> >> Please have a try with any non-DRM books (or their extracts) that you'll >> find on 7switch >> <https://www.7switch.com/en/list/drmfree/lang-eng/new/page/1/sales>. >> Also try to drag and drop your own ePubs (in so-called *Author Mode*) to >> add books in these TW5 containers. And tell us what you think! >> >> >> Cheers, Xavier. >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/7464ffe8-31d9-4044-ae34-f09cffd82220%40googlegroups.com.
