[Tfug] OT: E-Book position representation

[John Gruenenfelder]

Hello again,

I got a lot of good feedback from my previous ebook reader question concerning
useful features.  And, as my former userbase continues to be as silent as the
night, I was hoping to bug you all once more.

As I begin to plan more on what the next Weasel Reader application will be
like, I am again facing the question of how to address the reader's position
inside the text.

In the current Palm OS incarnation, I went with a strict percentage
indicator.  Your current position in the text might be 42.67% and the list of
bookmarks might contain "Chapter 1" at 0.35%, for example.

Personally, I thought this was a good way of doing things.  Internally, all
position information is stored as a character/byte offset into the book and
these are easily converted into percentages.  And on Palm OS, users have a
stylus so entering in "5.72" (percent) is a relatively simple matter.  Also,
most users move around in a book via bookmarks so the dialog where a location
is entered and moved to is (I believe) not so frequently used.

Looking forward, though, the next version will use Unicode for book texts.  I
can still use character offset, though seeking might be a bit more
problematic.  Even a byte offset should still be okay.  The percentage numbers
will still work and deliver the user to the same location each time, though
they may be somewhat less accurate in that 5% of bytes doesn't necessarily
equal 5% of the characters.  But, it could be an acceptable tradeoff.

I had always thought that "page" numbers made no sense in an electronic
format unless that format specifically contains pages (PostScript/PDF for
example).  But most other reader programs continue to use that paradigm and
users occasionally ask for it or wonder why it is not present.

Now, on a finger-touch interface, entering in percentages might be slightly
less convenient, I suppose.  I can image providing the user with a slider to
rapidly move through the text which will greatly lessen the number of times a
user needs to directly type in a location.

So... any thoughts about this?  Percentages or page numbers?  Maybe some
altogether different representation?  Which method is best?  Maybe it should
be a user option on how to display position?  Keep in mind that "book" layout
is secondary.  Chapters/sections are an *optional* feature of a book and are,
I think, best delivered to the user as bookmarks.

Thanks for your time!


-- 
--John Gruenenfelder    Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
Try Weasel Reader for PalmOS  --  http://weaselreader.org
"This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in the blood
of my enemies!"
        --Sam of Sam & Max