I think I'm reading through the Core novels and select shorts between for the fifth time... I found this in about 2000 and fell in love with it right away.

I tried doing my own write-yer-own thing, but it hasn't really gained any steam yet...and I had an idea!

These could easily be adapted to a ebook... in fact I tried it for the first core novel and it turned out great on my 'droid (Samsung Vibrant) I was wondering, if maybe it would be received well if, for free, I edited the formatting and converted these to an epub format to be freely distributed from this site? If Gryphon or anyone else with the say so over their sweat and blood gave me the green light, I will be able to do it soon (I hope...my computer died and won't have the creds to build another, so Im getting a laptop soon, used and old, but useful still).

What does everyone think? I wouldn't even ask for credits! I just find it easier to read in my ebook program than through the web pr text editor.

I'm thinking, if these forums had a FAQ (besides the default DCForum one), this would need to be added to it.

I can't speak for the Powers That Be, but this topic has come up many times, at least once very recently, and I believe the verdict was "Not gonna" -- for several, equally-valid reasons.

Which is not to say a lot of us haven't done our own conversions. But as for an 'official' one, there isn't one.

--sofaspud
--

>I'm thinking, if these forums had a FAQ (besides the default DCForum
>one), this would need to be added to it.

It's weird, years can go by without any mention of it, and then there'll be a sudden rash of requests/offers. Usually for all different mutually exclusive formats, which is what made me throw up my hands in the first place way back in the PalmPilot era.

I'd be more open to the concept now than I was back then if it could be demonstrated to me that some sort of broad-based compatibility could be achieved. I'm still not interested in maintaining the ebook-format equivalent of versions for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and GameCube, if you'll excuse the metaphor. :)

However, as I mentioned over in the NXE thread where this came up a couple weeks ago, I haven't really got the time or the mental bandwidth right now to investigate those options - and in the meantime I still maintain, as I did years ago, that if 80-column text was good enough for the Pilgrim Fathers, it should be good enough for us. (I did throw some non-ASCII characters into the most recent Warrior's Legacy, though, because what the hell, I mean, I'm not dealing with USENET any more. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

It doesn't bother me, and I've been reading UF long before I upgraded from a CRT monitor, but it is kind of odd having a column of text on the left side of the screen then a white expanse taking up the other 2/3's of my wide-screen monitor.

>It doesn't bother me, and I've been reading UF long before I upgraded
>from a CRT monitor, but it is kind of odd having a column of text on
>the left side of the screen then a white expanse taking up the other
>2/3's of my wide-screen monitor.

Unmaximize your browser window.

:)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'm personally amused that technology seems to be coming full circle. I just acquired a spankin' new HTC G2, Android flavor, and the built-in browser will, with no complaints, happily render every UF/NXE/WL/whatever bit of plaintext I throw at it, both landscape and portrait.

What the hell is this, man? I spent all that time converting SotS to an ebook format just for upstart new tech to render it moot? I'm going to shake my cane threateningly!

(Seriously, though, it's nice to see someone developing the new shinies actually Gets It.)

--sofaspud
--

>I'd be more open to the concept now than I was back then if it could
>be demonstrated to me that some sort of broad-based compatibility
>could be achieved. I'm still not interested in maintaining the
>ebook-format equivalent of versions for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and
>GameCube, if you'll excuse the metaphor. :)
>
>However, as I mentioned over in the NXE thread where this came up a
>couple weeks ago, I haven't really got the time or the mental
>bandwidth right now to investigate those options - and in the meantime
>I still maintain, as I did years ago, that if 80-column text was good
>enough for the Pilgrim Fathers, it should be good enough for us. (I
>did throw some non-ASCII characters into the most recent Warrior's
>Legacy, though, because what the hell, I mean, I'm not dealing
>with USENET any more. :)

Well, the key deal is that, 25 years on, an ASCII file is still fantastically easy for a modern machine to process, using about any software you care to use, from the monolithic office choice to the frankly can't be measured miniscule market share of a freeware text editor that handles Python scripting frameworks.

No real need to fix this if it isn't that broken. Especially given the issues with making eFiles read correctly on 100% of the eBookReaders out there. I'd be perfectly happy if the only thing we did was move up to Unicode.

Well, Adobe has pretty much succeeded in making PDF the universal format. Pretty much every smartphone out there reads it. I'm not too up to speed on the eBook readers though...

Of course, the new tablets that are coming out (to compete against the iPad) can render text just fine as well, so it really isn't necessary.

(btw, certain applications can 'print' to a PDF--*cough*Word*cough*--so this makes a relatively easy work around for individuals to make due.

---
Chris Stevenson

>(I
>did throw some non-ASCII characters into the most recent Warrior's
>Legacy, though, because what the hell, I mean, I'm not dealing
>with USENET any more. :)
>
Even USENET can handle Unicode nowadays. Mostly.

S.

Yeah... I can get the compatability thing... the copy I have edited (before the great computer crash of 2011), is showing pretty well minus the specially placed stuff to add to the humour and stuff...but the double standard, plus the styleing book from smashwords strives to make the book presentable across all platforms as much as possible.

Well... didn't hurt to ask... I'm just looking to go e back to the awesome story. Like I said...I'm reading them again!!!! Why? I needed good laughs lately ;-)