Kindle edition has TOC at end of book
Closed this issue · 5 comments
Any look up of a chapter section then sets the "Furthest Read" pointer to the end of the book. Usually "Furthest Read" is the location you were last at before going to look something up in the TOC. For example, a previous section you wish to review.
Please have future editions move the TOC to the front. Kinda like has been standard in publishing for centuries.
Thanks! I don't have a Kindle to confirm this, so I've sent the info to the publisher. I do know that in the pdf ebook and print copies the ToC is in the correct place.
I'll report back when I hear something. Sorry for the trouble.
On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 09:03:56PM -0700, Semmy Purewal wrote:
Thanks! I don't have a Kindle to confirm this, so I've sent the info to the publisher. I do know that in the pdf ebook and print copies the ToC is in the correct place.
I'll report back when I hear something. Sorry for the trouble.
Do you shop at Amazon? Have a non i-Tablet?
You can confirm this behavior with the Kindle Cloud reader or Kindle
app on an Android device. I don't own iDevices and cannot comment on them.
You can also see the sub-optimal font choice they made. At least for the
Cloud reader. The display is nicer/better, at least to my eyes, in the
Android app.[1] The cloud reader behavior tested in both Chrome and Firefox
on a laptop with 13" screen. The . character is so small, unobtrusive,
that it is easy to miss. For example in reading the CSS examples for
.tabs or span.active. On the small chance you have some effective way of
providing feedback to the Kindle crew, their font choice is suboptimal--.
OK maybe that one is my eyes. Unfortunately it made following examples ...
interesting. Fortunately there's nothing like a bit of problem generation
and debugging to drive home a syntax point.
On a different topic, what is the proper forum for editorial comments?
When introducing the reader/student to displaying the ToDo lists you give
the very easy case of displaying the list, for Oldest tab, and leave them
to figure out how to reverse the list. To this point in the book your
intended readership could even be people with no programming background.
(Who are having good work habits instilled as they follow along. Very good.)
The concepts of a javascript function to reverse a list or a decrement operator
may quite well be foreign.
It would take, perhaps, a page to introduce the array reverse property and
show its use. Or to introduce the length property, for
var listSize = toDos.length - 1;
for (listSize; listSize > -1; listSize--) { ... }
Or a paragraph to mention the reverse and length properties and suggest some
Google and Stackoverflow time.
For the next edition...
[1] At least on a Nexus 7, which has a very good display.
Michael Rasmussen, Portland Oregon
Be Appropriate && Follow Your Curiosity
I'm eating slightly green peaches right now - kind of bitter, kind of sweet - sort of like my day.
~ Prefers to remain anonymous
On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 09:03:56PM -0700, Semmy Purewal wrote:
Thanks! I don't have a Kindle to confirm this, so I've sent the info to the publisher. I do know that in the pdf ebook and print copies the ToC is in the correct place.
I'll report back when I hear something. Sorry for the trouble.
In my last reply I went a bit off track complaining about the Kindle font choice.
A bit of a modification - the problem only exists in the Kindle Cloud (web based) reader.
- A native Kindle (two year old device, paperwhite display) shows . character well.
- The Android app also displays nicely with the advantage of syntax colorization.
It's only the cloud reader that has the font issue. And for some reason syntax
colorization does not exist in that format.
So if you, or your editor, or O'Reilly have a mechanism for feedback to Amazon this
would be a nice thing to report.
I've just purchased the eBook version from O'Reilly's web site. Time to go to work,
but I'll be checking out how that version displays in various ereaders.
Time to go to work.
Michael Rasmussen, Portland Oregon
Be Appropriate && Follow Your Curiosity
"The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members."
So too it is with how an open source project treats its newbies.
~ perlbuzz
Mike, on the issue at hand, Karen Tripp from O'Reilly responded:
Having the TOC at the back of the Mobi is intentional. We've done that so that when you open up
the book, you don’t have to page through 5-10 pages of TOC entries to get to the content, which
annoys readers.We will look into the larger issue here, that this interferes with the “furthest read” pointer in the
book. While that shouldn't be the case on most modern Kindle devices, the customer is using
Kindle for Android and Kindle Cloud reader, so maybe it is a problem there.
As for further issues related to rendering on the Kindle, I think it would be fine if you contact O'Reilly customer service and let them know. They are very responsive, and will most likely be able to route your concerns to the appropriate person. I am very happy and willing to pass them along myself, too.
And it's totally fine with me if you continue to post editorial comments here, or you can e-mail them to me if they are strongly critical. :)
Maybe it would be helpful to include additional examples/solutions here in the repo? This may help get people going with things like the 'reverse' example. Once I get the rest of the more basic examples up, I can try that.
Thank you!
Semmy Purewal wrote:
Mike, on the issue at hand, Karen Tripp from O'Reilly responded:
Having the TOC at the back of the Mobi is intentional. We've done that
so that when you open up
the book, you don’t have to page through 5-10 pages of TOC entries to
get to the content, which
annoys readers.
She's right about that. But I believe, based on experience with other
books, that you can set the start page for reading. I've certainly had to
"go back" to see the cover and other start of item pages in books. They
all seem to start at chapter one, page one.
We will look into the larger issue here, that this interferes with the
“furthest read” pointer in the
book. While that shouldn't be the case on most modern Kindle devices,
the customer is using
Kindle for Android and Kindle Cloud reader, so maybe it is a problem
there.
I would think both of those would be as up to date as Amazon can make them.
As for further issues related to rendering on the Kindle, I think it would
be fine if you contact O'Reilly customer service and let them know.
Will do. Annoying that it's only in the cloud reader.
And it's totally fine with me if you continue to post editorial comments
here, or you can e-mail them to me if they are strongly critical. :)Maybe it would be helpful to include additional examples/solutions here in
the repo?
As in fork and issue pull requests? I was hesitant to stomp on your work.
Michael Rasmussen
Be Appropriate && Follow Your Curiosity