Re: the bigger picture
- From: Bowerbird@[redacted]
- Subject: Re: the bigger picture
- Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:24:12 EDT
bob said:
> The problem is with the terminology used by the software engineers
> when designing a viewer for a multifile format such as PDF or DjVu--
> PAGE # is an unfortunate assumption of what a single image file
> in such a format might actually be! The solution is to build into viewers
> the option of viewing FILE # and/or DESCRIPTION, which could include
> terms such as Spine, Front Cover, Blank Page, Copyright Page, Bastard Page,
> Title Page, Frontispiece, Map, Page iv, Page 1, Page 2&3, Plate 1, etc.
oh, bob, so close to the right solution, and yet so far away... :+)
> The solution is to build into viewers
> the option of viewing FILE # and/or DESCRIPTION
the problem is with "and/or".
what that does is open the door for _two_ sets of "pagenumbers",
and that's a "solution" that just recreates the problem once again.
the correct solution is _one_ set of pagenumbers -- the _originals_.
(with, yes, labels used throughout to handle "unnumbered" pages.
the set of labels you've given will cause implementation problems,
but i will kindly spare the lurkers that particular wrinkle right now.)
forget about "file sequence number"! it's just a needless confusion
that introduces the cost of confusion without giving us any benefits.
if the program needs to keep track of it to do its business, fine, but
keep it totally invisible to us humans, because we just don't need it.
one (and only one) set of pagenumbers -- the originals!
-bowerbird
p.s. this is why acrobat's "solution" is no solution at all! sorry,
jose...