December 2012 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Re: [Wlug] Ebook Creation

by Randall Mason

If you are just doing text already, you should really check out pandoc. It converts different "text only" formats to different other formats. Markdown is the new famous "readable as plain text, parseable to fancy text" on the block, but pandoc supports a few other very famous ones. If you just do a bit of ascii beautification, you can end up with something that you can read and edit it just by itself. No reveal codes, no show source, no XML. Just simple text. Check out the example on pandoc's website: http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/epub.html It even has a link to the progit github repo where you can see how well it worked under version control. You can see how a chapter looks and look at the build process that they use to make it. Here's chapter one in the raw markdown: https://raw.github.com/progit/progit/master/en/01-introduction/01-chapter1.… very readable. With github's built in markdown to html converter, it ends up like this: https://github.com/progit/progit/blob/master/en/01-introduction/01-chapter1… Once you have it in markdown or reStructured Text, you just convert to epub. From there you use KindleGen and you have .mobi which works everywhere that epub doesn't. The other option is to write your own rules for the calibre text to any-ebook-format-ever converter. You end up with not having to change your format at all, and calibre is made for ebooks. It doesn't try to do anything else. A true one trick pony - the Unix way. Also, everybody knows that epub is just a zipped up set of html files with like 3 xml files, right? Change any .epub to .zip and you've got a little archive that you can poke around in. Yoink pictures, fix typos, diff between versions... Open formats FTW! Randall Mason clashthebunny(a)gmail.com On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 5:10 AM, Adam Keck <ghostis(a)gmail.com> wrote: > If you create a particularly formatted *.doc file in Open Office, Amazon > will convert it to Kindle with their online tools. > > The tricky part is getting the table of contents and footnotes correct and > "clickable". My wife did manage to get it to work. She used Neo Office on > Mac. > > https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A328FYMFAE7VNY#word > > https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A17W8UM0MMSQX6 > > Knowing what I know now, if I were to do a book, I would definitely do the > work of writing in a simply structured ASCII file in source control. I > would have the title, author line, chapter headings, and section headings > on separate space-separated lines and the content in discrete paragraphs > without hard line breaks. Then, for the e-book, I would drop it into Open > Office to do the formatted doc file for Kindle, or the formatted RTF file > to feed Calibre for e-pub. For the print version, I would paste it into > Lyx, set the page size, go through it to change the style types for the > author, chapter heading, etc, and then render it to PDF. > > If I had more programming and format conversion knowledge though, I think > that the best method would probably be to write the book in XML, e.g. > DocBook, and then use code to generate the above doc, RTF, and Lyx/LaTeX > files. > > > -Adam > > > On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 4:11 PM, <dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com> wrote: > >> >> Quick question... What format is your novel currently in? >> >> One big text file. One blank line separates scenes. Two blank lines denote >> the beginning of a new chapter. However the telepathic communications from >> the potted plant are designated with '/'. My plan is use italic for them. >> >> > What ever happened to Ascii? Ascii is the AMERICAN >> > Standard Code for Information Interchange. >> Internationalization came. As someone who wrote the multilingual support >> at work, ASCII is not good enough anymore. UTF8 or it relatives (UTF16, >> etc.) are the only acceptable standards. >> >> I keep calling for them to abolish the languages with weird character sets >> but they don't listen to me. :) >> >> Yes the text file is Ascii at the moment since it is UTF8 and doesn't have >> any multibyte characters. As mentioned earlier the telepathic >> communications need to switched to italic. >> >> Could HTML be used for my needs? Certainly. The problem is what would the >> user experience be. Could someone put it on their tablet/ereader and >> easily resume where they left off, take notes, etc. That is why I want to >> convert it to an ebook format. If I'm going to put it on amazon, >> drivethrufiction or some other site it needs to converted at some point. >> >> I like calibre and keep a large collection of rpg books in it. I'm not >> convinced that handing it a libreoffice file (or other format) to convert >> is the best solution. I downloaded writer2epub extension to libreoffice. >> I've also looked at sigil user guide but haven't installed it yet. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wlug mailing list >> Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org >> http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > >

Dec. 4, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Ebook Creation

by Adam Keck

If you create a particularly formatted *.doc file in Open Office, Amazon will convert it to Kindle with their online tools. The tricky part is getting the table of contents and footnotes correct and "clickable". My wife did manage to get it to work. She used Neo Office on Mac. https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A328FYMFAE7VNY#word https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A17W8UM0MMSQX6 Knowing what I know now, if I were to do a book, I would definitely do the work of writing in a simply structured ASCII file in source control. I would have the title, author line, chapter headings, and section headings on separate space-separated lines and the content in discrete paragraphs without hard line breaks. Then, for the e-book, I would drop it into Open Office to do the formatted doc file for Kindle, or the formatted RTF file to feed Calibre for e-pub. For the print version, I would paste it into Lyx, set the page size, go through it to change the style types for the author, chapter heading, etc, and then render it to PDF. If I had more programming and format conversion knowledge though, I think that the best method would probably be to write the book in XML, e.g. DocBook, and then use code to generate the above doc, RTF, and Lyx/LaTeX files. -Adam On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 4:11 PM, <dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com> wrote: > >> Quick question... What format is your novel currently in? > > One big text file. One blank line separates scenes. Two blank lines denote > the beginning of a new chapter. However the telepathic communications from > the potted plant are designated with '/'. My plan is use italic for them. > > > What ever happened to Ascii? Ascii is the AMERICAN > > Standard Code for Information Interchange. > Internationalization came. As someone who wrote the multilingual support > at work, ASCII is not good enough anymore. UTF8 or it relatives (UTF16, > etc.) are the only acceptable standards. > > I keep calling for them to abolish the languages with weird character sets > but they don't listen to me. :) > > Yes the text file is Ascii at the moment since it is UTF8 and doesn't have > any multibyte characters. As mentioned earlier the telepathic > communications need to switched to italic. > > Could HTML be used for my needs? Certainly. The problem is what would the > user experience be. Could someone put it on their tablet/ereader and > easily resume where they left off, take notes, etc. That is why I want to > convert it to an ebook format. If I'm going to put it on amazon, > drivethrufiction or some other site it needs to converted at some point. > > I like calibre and keep a large collection of rpg books in it. I'm not > convinced that handing it a libreoffice file (or other format) to convert > is the best solution. I downloaded writer2epub extension to libreoffice. > I've also looked at sigil user guide but haven't installed it yet. > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Dec. 4, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Ebook Creation

by dulsi＠identicalsoftware.com

>> Quick question... What format is your novel currently in? One big text file. One blank line separates scenes. Two blank lines denote the beginning of a new chapter. However the telepathic communications from the potted plant are designated with '/'. My plan is use italic for them. > What ever happened to Ascii? Ascii is the AMERICAN > Standard Code for Information Interchange. Internationalization came. As someone who wrote the multilingual support at work, ASCII is not good enough anymore. UTF8 or it relatives (UTF16, etc.) are the only acceptable standards. I keep calling for them to abolish the languages with weird character sets but they don't listen to me. :) Yes the text file is Ascii at the moment since it is UTF8 and doesn't have any multibyte characters. As mentioned earlier the telepathic communications need to switched to italic. Could HTML be used for my needs? Certainly. The problem is what would the user experience be. Could someone put it on their tablet/ereader and easily resume where they left off, take notes, etc. That is why I want to convert it to an ebook format. If I'm going to put it on amazon, drivethrufiction or some other site it needs to converted at some point. I like calibre and keep a large collection of rpg books in it. I'm not convinced that handing it a libreoffice file (or other format) to convert is the best solution. I downloaded writer2epub extension to libreoffice. I've also looked at sigil user guide but haven't installed it yet.

Dec. 3, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Ebook Creation

by Keith Wright

> From: Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> > > Quick question... What format is your novel currently in? > > On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 7:15 PM, <dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com> wrote: > > > Has anyone made an ebook under linux? Specifically I'm taking about epub > > and mobi formats for supporting ereaders. I stupidly decided to do > > NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - 50,000 words in 30 days) and > > succeeded. I still have to clean up the novel but assuming I finish that > > I'd like to convert it to ebook format. What ever happened to Ascii? Ascii is the AMERICAN Standard Code for Information Interchange. True patriots will accept no substitutes. If you need a lot of pictures you would need a way to embeded them. If you need the occasional bold or italic, a tiny subset of HTML suffices, and remains readable even as Ascii. Are E-books being sold that can't display Ascii? I don't have an E-book, and it's going to stay that if they don't display Ascii, at least. If you are speed writing, I would think you would stay away from "formats" and just send the octets from the keyboard to the disk and out. -- Keith PS: Not a total curmugeon, I will take Unicode.

Dec. 3, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Ebook Creation

by Tim Keller

Quick question... What format is your novel currently in? On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 7:15 PM, <dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com> wrote: > Has anyone made an ebook under linux? Specifically I'm taking about epub > and mobi formats for supporting ereaders. I stupidly decided to do > NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - 50,000 words in 30 days) and > succeeded. I still have to clean up the novel but assuming I finish that > I'd like to convert it to ebook format. > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Dec. 3, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Ebook Creation

by Eric Martin

I'm a new user of calibre and I too like it. On Dec 3, 2012 1:06 AM, "Randall Mason" <clashthebunny(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Calibre will convert to many different formats, so it depends on what > format you have it in. See: > http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html#conversion > > Whatever format you have it in, you may be able to use [pandoc]( > http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/) Any of these formats: > markdown <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/>, reStructuredText<http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/introduction.html>, > textile <http://redcloth.org/textile>, HTML <http://www.w3.org/TR/html40/>, > DocBook <http://www.docbook.org/>, or LaTeX<http://www.latex-project.org/>can be the source format. > > > > Randall Mason > clashthebunny(a)gmail.com > > > On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 2:15 AM, <dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com> wrote: > >> Has anyone made an ebook under linux? Specifically I'm taking about epub >> and mobi formats for supporting ereaders. I stupidly decided to do >> NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - 50,000 words in 30 days) and >> succeeded. I still have to clean up the novel but assuming I finish that >> I'd like to convert it to ebook format. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wlug mailing list >> Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org >> http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > >

Dec. 3, 2012

OPENINGS - Sr Software Engineer - Linux kernel, drivers

by John Spencer

Sr. Software Engineer (embedded Linux) Our client north of Boston has an opportunity for a Senior Software Engineer with at least 10 years of experience. The successful engineer needs to have an aptitude for real time systems and experience with capital equipment/devices. Strong background with embedded Linux kernel and driver development is required. The engineer will need a high comfort level developing low level Linux code as well as modifying existing low level Linux code. This is a contract to perm opportunity. Work must be done on-site. Client will not sponsor visas. Please send a Word version of your resume to jspencer@connectedsp. com As always your resume will not be sent anywhere without your prior approval. Regards, John Spencer Connected Systems Partners Connecting Top Talent with Top Companies 978-455-5550 x208 978-621-9743 cell jspencer(a)connectedsp.com www.connectedsp.com <www.connectedsp.com%20%20%20> GET CONNECTED! Unless otherwise explicitly instructed by sender, all information in this email is considered confidential and intended for the view and use of the recipient(s) only.

Dec. 3, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Ebook Creation

by Steve Pelland

I also use Calibre. Works well, not always perfect, but pretty darn good. On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 8:06 AM, Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I second calibre... I have through my travels on the internet > collected a large number of free ebooks in a number of different > formats... I use calibre so I can read them on my kindle. It supports > pretty much anything to anything converting... Not always perfectly, > but free is free... > > On 12/3/12, Randall Mason <clashthebunny(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Calibre will convert to many different formats, so it depends on what > > format you have it in. See: > > http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html#conversion > > > > Whatever format you have it in, you may be able to use [pandoc]( > > http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/) Any of these formats: > > markdown <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/>, > > reStructuredText< > http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/introduction.html>, > > textile <http://redcloth.org/textile>, HTML < > http://www.w3.org/TR/html40/>, > > DocBook <http://www.docbook.org/>, or LaTeX > > <http://www.latex-project.org/>can be the source format. > > > > > > > > Randall Mason > > clashthebunny(a)gmail.com > > > > > > On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 2:15 AM, <dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com> wrote: > > > >> Has anyone made an ebook under linux? Specifically I'm taking about epub > >> and mobi formats for supporting ereaders. I stupidly decided to do > >> NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - 50,000 words in 30 days) and > >> succeeded. I still have to clean up the novel but assuming I finish that > >> I'd like to convert it to ebook format. > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Wlug mailing list > >> Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > >> http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > >> > > > > -- > Sent from my mobile device > > I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their > constituents as "consumers". > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > -- Gentlemen, *we can* rebuild him. *We have the technology*.

Dec. 3, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Ebook Creation

by Tim Keller

I second calibre... I have through my travels on the internet collected a large number of free ebooks in a number of different formats... I use calibre so I can read them on my kindle. It supports pretty much anything to anything converting... Not always perfectly, but free is free... On 12/3/12, Randall Mason <clashthebunny(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Calibre will convert to many different formats, so it depends on what > format you have it in. See: > http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html#conversion > > Whatever format you have it in, you may be able to use [pandoc]( > http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/) Any of these formats: > markdown <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/>, > reStructuredText<http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/introduction.html>, > textile <http://redcloth.org/textile>, HTML <http://www.w3.org/TR/html40/>, > DocBook <http://www.docbook.org/>, or LaTeX > <http://www.latex-project.org/>can be the source format. > > > > Randall Mason > clashthebunny(a)gmail.com > > > On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 2:15 AM, <dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com> wrote: > >> Has anyone made an ebook under linux? Specifically I'm taking about epub >> and mobi formats for supporting ereaders. I stupidly decided to do >> NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - 50,000 words in 30 days) and >> succeeded. I still have to clean up the novel but assuming I finish that >> I'd like to convert it to ebook format. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wlug mailing list >> Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org >> http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >> > -- Sent from my mobile device I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Dec. 3, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Ebook Creation

by Randall Mason

Calibre will convert to many different formats, so it depends on what format you have it in. See: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html#conversion Whatever format you have it in, you may be able to use [pandoc]( http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/) Any of these formats: markdown <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/>, reStructuredText<http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/introduction.html>, textile <http://redcloth.org/textile>, HTML <http://www.w3.org/TR/html40/>, DocBook <http://www.docbook.org/>, or LaTeX <http://www.latex-project.org/>can be the source format. Randall Mason clashthebunny(a)gmail.com On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 2:15 AM, <dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com> wrote: > Has anyone made an ebook under linux? Specifically I'm taking about epub > and mobi formats for supporting ereaders. I stupidly decided to do > NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - 50,000 words in 30 days) and > succeeded. I still have to clean up the novel but assuming I finish that > I'd like to convert it to ebook format. > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Dec. 3, 2012