A very belated thanks to Henry for giving us a glimpse into the world of eBook development last Friday.

Using XCode – to the horror/incomprehension of some more conservative developers in the room – Henry ran through an example of building content using the open source Baker framework, while also drawing our attention to a similar offering, pugpig (presumably named for its good looks).

Baker provides a means of developing interactive content aimed at the Apple Store / Newsstand channels (if I understood correctly).  Henry pointed out that the significance of Baker et al. is as much in accessing this large market as it is in the use of specific technologies  – i.e. HTML5, with its local storage capabilities, integration with geo-location services, and so on.  The perceived barrier to purchase on iPhone / iPad using Apple Store is much lower.

Most importantly of all, the session allowed Henry to combine iPad, MacBook Pro, and projector to create a slightly disconcerting visual effect:

As for pugpig – I’ve just seen that the project page invites you to ‘Pork me on GitHub’.  Creating a punch line from this phrase I leave as an exercise for the reader.

Related links:

http://bakerframework.com/

http://www.lakercompendium.com/

http://pugpig.com

http://www.mightymeta.co.uk/app-book-publishing-with-baker-and-pugpig/