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Subject: Re: The brick and mortar
From: "Callum Brown" <callum@calcuode.com>
To: "mieum" <mieum@namu.blue>, "Arav K." <nothien@uber.space>,
 <~mieum/booksin.space@lists.sr.ht>
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2020 17:07:32 +0000
Message-Id: <C6QE2KFBI4VK.2WXYRTCJHTIU1@callum-computer>
In-Reply-To: <C6Q41AD9KBSV.39QOYOWCLFX68@maclibre>

> Speaking of .bib files, it might be nice to have a central .bib file
> that includes all the info for the whole library.

I agree. Either one file with different language entries differetiated
somehow, or each language has its own .bib file.

The citation-key could be used for the paths to the actual content:
gemini://en.booksin.space/a-citation-key/ would get you to a directory
containing all the relevant files.

> There should be a complete text available, but also it would be nice
> if the table of contents was a list of links that linked to separate
> .gmi files for each chapter

I think that the only obligatory file should be the one containing the
whole text. Then there could be subdirectories containing alternative
formats: chapters, pages, subsections, whatever. Those could probably
be made manually rather than auto-generating them from the full text,
but common formats (like chapters) should be standardised.

Some examples of what it could look like:
gemini://en.booksin.space/dickens-a-christmas-carol/full-text.gmi
gemini://en.booksin.space/dickens-a-christmas-carol/chapters/1.gmi
gemini://es.booksin.space/dickens-cuento-de-navidad/texto-completo.gmi

The index page for a book directory could be generated from the .bib
entry and by looking at any files or subdirectories.

Callum