[Blindmath] {Spam?} Reading technical e-books with tables, charts, diagrams, etc

[Susan Jolly]

Hi Ben,

It sounds like you have a solution that works pretty well for you with the 
main concern being that for obvious reasons you'd rather not be spending 
your own time implementing that solution.  Have you considered trying to get 
help from some volunteers?  It seems to me that the process you described so 
clearly would be within the capability of even smart high school students 
studying computer science.  If you are near any colleges or universities you 
might try contacting their computer science departments.  Lots of schools 
nowdays have programs where they encourage students to volunteer. 
Alternatively, a computer science professor might be looking for a practical 
class project.  I'm suggesting that involving a group might be a better 
longterm solution than working with a single individual.  (I understand that 
you may be a bit concerned about the implications of removing the DRM but I 
think you can probably justify that.)

Sometimes implementing a custom solution that is exactly what one person 
needs makes a lot more sense that spending significantly more time and 
effort implementing a general solution.

Here's a relevant quote by Terence Parr, the good-natured author of the 
ANTLR parser.
"Why program by hand in five days what you can spend five years of your life 
automating?  Here's the point: The first time you encounter a problem, 
writing a formal, general, and automatic mechanism is expensive and is 
usually overkill."

Of course Parr ended up developing a very successful automated tool that 
addresses a large class of important problems and is actually still working 
on improving it some 20 years later. However, that's not what he did first.

Finally, you might want to contact the Diagram Center to see if they have 
any suggestions.
http://diagramcenter.org/

Best wishes,
Susan Jolly