Reader touches the e-book file date (Windows, 64-bit)

[Francois_C]

I noticed recently that ebook-viewer.exe "touches" (IE changes the date to the present one) my epub files dates, which is not only useless but obviously noxious, especially as it is my default PC epub reader.
Not yet verified if it also happens on Linux.
Thanks.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

I noticed recently that ebook-viewer.exe "touches" (IE changes the date to the present one) my epub files dates, which is not only useless but obviously noxious, especially as it is my default PC epub reader.
Not yet verified if it also happens on Linux.
Thanks.

You probably have 'remember current page when quitting' set
(In the Viewer) Preferences: Miscellaneous

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

I noticed recently that ebook-viewer.exe "touches" (IE changes the date to the present one) my epub files dates, which is not only useless but obviously noxious, especially as it is my default PC epub reader.

Not exactly useless if you want it to remember where you left off during reading. If you want to stop the date change then go to the setting theducks indicated and change it.

[Francois_C]

Thanks both of you. I did not check the box myself, as I never read a book on a computer; I only use the reader to check files, find a quote, etc. Things I cannot do as easily on the Kobo that is too slow and poorly designed
But I think changing the file you are supposed to view only is not a good programming practice. This should be written to an external file.
Changing the file date should only be used for a serious file modification.

[faltradl]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

But I think changing the file you are supposed to view only is not a good programming practice. This should be written to an external file.

Yes an no. Writing the last read page to en external file works only on the same computer. If you copy/move it to another compter he dosn't know somthing of it.

Changing the file date should only be used for a serious file modification.

How do you whand do that? That's a function of the operating system. Every modern OS safes the last time of reading al file. And of course, when a program writes something into al file the file date must be changed.

Some OS, for example Unix/Linux, change the file date if a file ist copied. Not changed, only using the cp-commad of the OS.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Francois_C

But I think changing the file you are supposed to view only is not a good programming practice. This should be written to an external file.

Since I am not an expert in what is or isn't good programing practice I will simply state that I think bookmarking the last read position within the file seems like an elegant solution to me.

Originally Posted by Francois_C

Changing the file date should only be used for a serious file modification.

What the hell is a serious file modification? The OS changes the file modification date any time a file is modified. It isn't that major of an item. However if any user thinks it is a big deal it is amazing that they are in total control of preventing the file being modified while viewing.

Putting the control in the user's hands sounds like good programming practice to me.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

Since I am not an expert in what is or isn't good programing practice I will simply state that I think bookmarking the last read position within the file seems like an elegant solution to me.



What the hell is a serious file modification? The OS changes the file modification date any time a file is modified. It isn't that major of an item. However if any user thinks it is a big deal it is amazing that they are in total control of preventing the file being modified while viewing.

Putting the control in the user's hands sounds like good programming practice to me.

Putting a file inside the epub to remember the last place read is not an elegant solution. Plus using such a system only allows calibre to remember the place in epub files and not in other formats as calibre viewer converts other formats to epub and that file is gone once you close the reader.
A better solution would be to have the last position saved to the metadata opf file that has the metadata for backup. Or to make a separate book mark file.
Actually now that I think about it making a separate bookmark file would be a good idea. There are hundreds of different readers (software) out there that use their own system for remembering last page read. If calibre could save bookmarks and the last read part separately I think plugin developers could come up with ways to sync that data with the readers that they support. So the read\unread position bookmarks could be synced across devices and software.
Me not being a developer can't actually bring this to calibre nor do I have the skills to understand if something like this is possible. But its an idea maybe some developer might think its something doable and as calibre is opensource might be willing to submit patches.
I would prefer someone else to do it apart from Kovid as I know he is busy bringing multi user and multi access to calibre so dont want him to take time away from that .

[kovidgoyal]

The bookmarks are stored inside epub files so that you can share them with other people, and other computers with no difficulty. That is an extremely elegant solution. And the viewer stores bookmarks outside the file for formats other than epub that dont support arbitrary data being added to the file.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

Putting a file inside the epub to remember the last place read is not an elegant solution.

I wonder what your point is using these words, since I stated that it was an elegant solution to me. Saying it is not an elegant solution is meaningless.

I have no qualms with the rest of your well thought out post.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

I wonder what your point is using these words, since I stated that it was an elegant solution to me. Saying it is not an elegant solution is meaningless.

I have no qualms with the rest of your well thought out post.

Yeah I should have added not an elegant solution to me

[LadyKate]

Hummm, The one problem with epubs that I have is finding duplicates. As the bookmark file changes it, an updated cover or tags changes it but the base ebook, the text is the same.

Duplicate checkers only look at the whole file, even the plugin. It would be so very useful to have a way to check for exact duplicate text while ignoring the additional data and covers.

<just some wishful thinking lol>

[Francois_C]

I suppose that, when the 'remember current page' box is on, the reader does not only 'touch' the file info, but recompresses the file and saves it again. So, even the size may be different, or I suffer hallucinations. When I initiated this thread, I didn't dare to tell it, but I thought that I had noticed it too (for files previously compressed with a slightly different zip algorithm or parameters?).
But as for me, I got a satisfying answer to my question: as far as the box is unchecked, the behavior of the reader fits my needs. Maybe the box should be unchecked by default.