Thinking about the author_sort tweak ...

[theducks]

I am in the 'I will fix it' camp.

James T. Smith Jr.
I fix to sort
Smith Jr., James T.
I would like a 'turn the Red Off, I fixed it this way' flag

[Manichean]

@chaley: Thanks for the explanation. The UI issue Kovid brought up is pretty important, though- I think that, at least to the user, there shouldn't be much of a change in the edit metadata dialog(s). If you implement it that way, you should try to keep the author field the way it is, as a single text input, and apply a standard split into first and last names, say according to the comma behaviour. Then, for the non-standard cases, you might provide a manage author dialog from within the edit dialog that allows the user to fine-tune and manually select what goes into the respective name fields and how the name should be composed.

[EowynCarter]

Stupid question, what is the "author sort" used for ?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Stupid question, what is the "author sort" used for ?

It is used when you sort by authors. There are two of them. The first, one for each book, is used when books are sorted. The other, one for each author, is used to sort authors in the tag browser and content server, and is used to build the default for the one in the book.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by theducks

I am in the 'I will fix it' camp.

James T. Smith Jr.
I fix to sort
Smith Jr., James T.
I would like a 'turn the Red Off, I fixed it this way' flag

If you fix the author's value, then the book's value won't be red anymore.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Manichean

@chaley: Thanks for the explanation. The UI issue Kovid brought up is pretty important, though- I think that, at least to the user, there shouldn't be much of a change in the edit metadata dialog(s). If you implement it that way, you should try to keep the author field the way it is, as a single text input, and apply a standard split into first and last names, say according to the comma behaviour. Then, for the non-standard cases, you might provide a manage author dialog from within the edit dialog that allows the user to fine-tune and manually select what goes into the respective name fields and how the name should be composed.

I am not going to implement anything. I can easily live with what is already there, and I don't feel like dealing with the controversy any change would cause.

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am not going to implement anything. I can easily live with what is already there, and I don't feel like dealing with the controversy any change would cause.

Oh, okay. I was under the impression that this was the planning stage of a new feature. Well, changing the default to comma is a good feature, as well

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by chaley

It is used when you sort by authors. There are two of them. The first, one for each book, is used when books are sorted. The other, one for each author, is used to sort authors in the tag browser and content server, and is used to build the default for the one in the book.

I didn't even knew calibre stored authors separately.
Will the reader use the sort-autor value when sorting book ? Or is it calibre specific ?
Isn't there a sort_title value too ?

[chaley]

@Manichean: The thread went off that direction from the initial question, whether to change the tweak's default. The discussion is interesting, and perhaps someone who cares more than me will take it on. As kiwidude said, it would be a lot of work, and it could easily generate a lot of controversy.

@EowynCarter: Yes, there is a title_sort, one per book, changeable in edit_metadata. What a device does depends on the device, and on the plugboards and save template in effect when sending to the device. Certainly both author and title sort values are available for use in path names and metadata.