eBooks and LiveCode

[FlexibleLearning]

Absolutely agree with you, Steve. I wrote 'HyperManuscript' back in 1986 in
conjunction with Roehampton Institute here in the UK. Far too much before
its time, though.

The problem now is one of critical mass... As you and Andre both point out,
there are now a couple of entrenched standards so the choices are [1]
support the existing standards, [2] launch an alternative, or [3] support
the standards but extended to support LC-specific functionality/features.
Whichever schema is used, LC will be up against the existing market supply.
I suspect Amazon will be giving away their e-book hardware within the next
12-18 months; money is not in hardware but the software/services that use
it. Cloud delivery to multiple platforms avoids this hardware problem but to
make any impact at all, an LC app would have to enter the market with a
substantial library of titles (several thousands) or it will be seen and
reviewed as a niche-minnow if it is seen at all.

And then there is HTML5, of course.

Hugh Senior
FLCo



From: "stgoldberg at aol.com" <stgoldberg at aol.com>
Subject: eBooks and LiveCode


Regarding the question of whether LiveCode could be suitable for publishers
who want to create interactive eBooks, I agree that such books would not be
published in epub or amz format, but how about an eBook created with
LiveCode as a pure LiveCode standalone that could be read in the cloud?
Then, it would be accessible through Macintosh, Windows, and eReaders such
as iPad that communicate with the Internet.  The question is one of
typesetting and laying out the book so that it looks professional (Scott
Rossi quality!?) and also would have a means to discourage pirating.  The
advantage of considering LiveCode is the vast flexibility that it would have
in introducing interactivity within the book.  LiveCode's potential for this
presently seems to exceed that of current means of creating eBooks (such as
using Quark Express for the Blio Reader).  There is a growing emphasis on
creating eBooks that are not merely electronic versions of print books, but
books that have something
 extra, the inclusion of interactivity in the form of hyperlinks, audio, and
movies.  Could LiveCode be a significant contributor to this?
Steve Goldberg




From: Andre Garzia <andre at andregarzia.com>
Subject: Re: eBooks and LiveCode

eBooks these days basically mean one of the following file formats:

* PDF
* mobi
* nook
* ePub