Hi Andy,

I haven't had time to test everything yet but a couple of notes and

> questions for now :
>
> 1) The download format is .rar - is .zip available? I would suggest that
> the .zip format is better known and understood.
>
> Question : As far as you know : Is rar supported natively by Windows,
> Linux and Mac computers?
>

right, Bhante Khemaratana had the same suggestion... Changed that for the
second volume published just recently.
I should change the first bundle to zip one of these days... ;-)

>
> 2) How do you handle the font problem? To the best of your knowledge :
> what eReaders make it possible to support the Pali fonts?
>
> this was done just with the ipad in mind. The epub contains UNICODE

version of the VRI texts which the ipad supports natively.
Bhante Khemaratana tested it for me on a kindle and said it works too...

> 3) How long have you had these ePub files available on the web?
>

about a year now I think... the second volume (with AN and Vinaya I
released just a few weeks ago).

>
> 4) Some months ago, I tried using Calibre to convert the Access to Insight
> Pali Canon web pages to ePub format. I found that Calibre would "recurse"
> and eventually fail due to the file size being created (ie any section of
> the AtoI site links back to the AtoI main page which links forward into the
> entire AtoI web site).
>
> I "solved" the problem by:
> - editing the html (in 2 - read two - spots) at the top and bottom of the
> index page of the section that I was interested in converting and
> - moving the directory with the AtoI pages in question out of the path
> specified by the other AtoI pages (example : create a new Folder on your
> desktop and put the folder for the AtoI section that you want to convert
> into an ebook in there for conversion)
> It was a hack but it worked fine. The final problem was getting font
> support done in a way that was simple, free and reliable. It has only been
> a few days since I found an eReader with simple Pali font support.
>
> My first experiments where with the first generation of Sony Reader, long

time ago <http://sonyreader.nibbanam.com/>. In the first few months there
was no support for unicode and no support for custom fonts...but soon they
allowed adding custom fonts. At that point I was able to embed the font
into their proprietory BBeB file format... Now of course, with tools like
Calibre, Sigil and unicode compatible devices like the ipad which has font
supporting a wide range of alphabets it is way easier to study the Pali
Canon on the go. Especially the ability to take notes and export them later
is invaluable ;-)

> 5) I found that Calibre did not work with the VRI Pali Canon pages because
> they use "frames" for the web pages and the index is managed by a little
> Javascript plugin (making PATH discovery impossible to Calibre). To VRI :
> It's very nice the way it is! I'm not suggesting here that you change the
> format of the pages!
>

you can use the work-around like I did: use Frank's CST4 ! He did a great
job in revising (cleaning) the VRI texts when he added them to the CST4
edition. It is easy to convert them. No problems with calibre this way.

>
> Also to VRI : your Pali Canon pages work great embedded into applications
> that use web browser support. Examples are C# applications, Python
> applications, and JQuery applications using tabs, etc. I know because I
> tested all of them using your web pages! The way you have your Pali Canon
> web pages now is perfect for using in applications because they are very
> minimalist - no waste of screen real estate.
>
> As I mentioned : the only eReader I've tested that has really simple Pali
> font support is the Kobo eReader Touch Editions. Are there other eReaders
> with good Pali font support?
>
> I'm rambling a bit, here. I hope this helps!
>
> Many thanks for getting the Canon into ePub format! and peace from
>
> Andy
>

metta back to you, Andy!
Lennart


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]