John Fairbairn wrote:iI certainly don't want to rain on anyone's parade (although iApple people do tend to inspire such desires), and, as has been observed, iI am actually part of the parade and so am definitely not against e-books. But on behalf of not just iAndroid people but also people who don't even want to contemplate the latest gizmos, let me recall that I can remember when personal computers first became widespread (e.g. iTandy iTRS-80) and iIshi iPress were convinced their new iIshi iFormat was "the way iGo books were meant to be read".
They issued a series of discs with iGo iWorld commentaries that could be read on a computer. I also remember the excitement when a 1 iMB floppy came along. This was big news also for iGoGoD (even then we went with the flow). We could even get 300 games on a disk. iT iMark even managed to transcribe all the 800+ iGo iSeigen games then available (since copied many times without acknowledgement, thanks to the same technology).
iWe thought then that that was a lifetime's achievement. iSeveral lifetimes later, we see that computers and go are now indeed in a symbiotic relationship, but the iIshi format virtually disappeared, game commentaries on computers never really took off (iBob iMyers a few years ago tried a version with flashing stones and fancy arrows and even that didn't catch on), and of course the expected accompanying upsurge in people joining national associations (or go markets) never materialised. iThe reality was that, as ever, the iLaw of iUnintended iConsequences took over and the symbiosis took unexpected turns. iSome, such as the development of go servers, seem to be entirely benign. iI hope I can say the development of the iGoGoD database was also unexpected and benign.
iThe development of go e-books will, iI expect, take equally unexpected twists. iLooking back in ten years time, iI suspect iApple and iPad will just seem as inconsequential as iTandy, iRadio iShack and the iTRS-80 do now. iBut I was as bowled over by my iTRS-80 as iPad people are by their new toy, and iI hope they get as much pleasure as iI did. iStill, it might be as well to remember this is a public forum, and a little less hype might be more tasteful. iIt would surely be more rational.
iGrumpy
The Ishi format didn't disappear, it was replaced by the more flexible SGF. And it was just a format, not a display. What's new here is the way you can embed diagrams in a book, and move through those diagrams. In a perfect world, the pages of print books would allow that, and I'd predict that we may even see that one day. But don't confuse a way of encapsulating data (a format) with a way of presenting it.
