Request for partecipating in the project

Request for partecipating in the project

[Sam Qasbah]

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Hello.
I asked to host the "Emacs Manual in ePub Format" project on Savannah (
https://savannah.nongnu.org/task/?15492). I had a discussion with Ineiev,
who thinks this project should be part of Emacs (
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-register-public/2019-12/msg00036.html).
So I ask to participate in the "Emacs" project as compiler of the manual in
ePub2 format. The ebook format allows you to consult the manual with a
smartphone, tablet or epub-reader. It is not a simple conversion from texi
to epub, but a craft work of organizing and adapting the files, rewriting
the formatting and adding a cover with a "fascinating" flavor. For me,
participating in the "Emacs" project would be an opportunity to improve my
computer skills and to exchange experiences with top-level programmers. I
can also convert the "elisp ref" to ePub

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Re: epub version of Emacs manual (was: request for participating)

[Paul Eggert]

On 12/22/19 9:23 AM, Sam Qasbah wrote:
> It is not a simple conversion from texi
> to epub, but a craft work of organizing and adapting the files, rewriting
> the formatting and adding a cover with a "fascinating" flavor.

Thanks for volunteering; it looks like a worthwhile thing to have. A good way to
get started would be to propose a patch to the Emacs master version, to support
an epub manual. You can do this by sending email to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org and
attach a patch, preferably in 'git format-patch' format; see
<https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=38708> for an example.

However, I worry that this would mean there would be two versions of the Emacs
manual, the main one maintained by developers in .texi format, and the epub one
which presumably would lag behind the main one. We wouldn't, for example, want
to delay an Emacs release while waiting for the epub version to catch up. Is
there some way to avoid this problem, by automating the epub version generation?

Perhaps it would be better to live with a not-quite-so-nice conversion, if the
conversion could be automated more. For ideas along those lines, please see:

https://per.bothner.com/blog/2016/texinfo-roadmap/
https://github.com/jlhg/texinfo2epub
https://github.com/ikrukov/epub
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2018-07/msg00009.html

Re: Request for partecipating in the project

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

It seems to me that if we want to convert Texinfo-format text into
ePub format, that ought to be part of the Texinfo package.
It can generate various formats already.  And we have many manuals
that are written in Texinfo format -- a new output format should
work for all of those manuals, and other people's manuals.

Would you be interested in working on this under the rubric of
Texinfo?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)