Sigil-1.9.20 Released

[DiapDealer]

Sigil-1.9.20

Sigil-1.9.20 represents a mix of bug fixes and new features:

Bug Fixes

• double width of new Find Replace icons to make them easier to access
• improve new Find Replace icon tooltips to be include short name on top
• fix bug that caused file rename changes to fail when updating smil
• Metadata Editor will now strip out unneeded xmlns:dc attributes on dc tags
• Metadata Editor is now more robust to language codes that have incorrect case in the metadata
• clarify Create HTML ToC menu entry works from existing ToC
• prevent indavertent "\" chars be treated like escapes when updating metadata
• fix MetaEditor nit of not auto adding "aut" role to Author metadata for epub2
• make Spellcheck Editor count align column numerically (right)

New Features

• add ability for a user-template*.xhtml and user-template*.css be read from Sigil Prefs to create new empty xhtml and css files
• updated to very latest MathJax version 3.2.2 for mathml support in Preview
• add ability to cycle through 2 different custom stylesheets (and none at all) for use with Preview

For additional information about the new user interface and new tools added to Sigil's Find and Replace see this thread here on Mobileread.com:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=346639

Notes:

The only installer that's appropriate for Windows 7 is the installer with "Legacy" in the name.

The latest version of the Sigil User Guide can always be downloaded from the Sigil website, or from its own GitHub repository.

Please check the Sigil website for important Sigil support links, additional resource downloads, and platform-specific trouble-shooting tips/requirements.

PGP Fingerprint (for signed tags and source archives):

B5A5 6206 AB0F BC1A 24EF AB8A A166 D29A 8FCD AC63

All binary (and source) downloads can also be found as assets at the bottom of The Sigil-1.9.20 Github Release page.

[DiapDealer]

Post reserved for future use.

[DNSB]

No issues with install. Now to check the bug fixes and new features.

[KevinH]

And please see this thread for info on the new Preview cycle-css spreadsheet until we get a chance to update the Sigil User's guide appropriately.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=347604

and this summary post:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...2&postcount=34

[User_Z]

Hello.

Maybe I missed something, but I thought that Sigil restores the previous session at startup and opens the previously opened epub in the form in which it was closed. Or I'm wrong?

[KevinH]

No. Sigil never did that. That is typically a OS feature which you can control.

[User_Z]

This is not good. Text editors can do this (and I think for a very long time), such as Notepad++.

[KevinH]

Again this is a basic OS feature, not an application feature. MacOS handles this nicely if you tell it to.

FWIW, leaving Sigil open while shutting down or sleeping your machine for overly long periods of time (over a weekend or longer) while actively editing a file is a sure-fire way to mess up. Many OS's like Windows 10 and 11 and macOS will literally erase files that have not been modified recently from even deep inside their OS tmp folder even if a program is actively using them!

The best thing is to simply save the file and close Sigil.

Alternatively, find a safe spot where Sigil has write access and create a new Sigil specific temp folder (NOT inside system tmp) and use Sigil Preferences to set it. Then restart Sigil. With a new temp folder set, Sigil is safe from the OS messing with its files at all. Then you can safely let Sigil stay open and even ask your OS to restore open Windows on startup.

This is not going to change.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by User_Z

This is not good. Text editors can do this (and I think for a very long time), such as Notepad++.

(Sigil) The File menu has the most recent list. But that just brings up the file.

Been using Sigil for 10Y and I can't remember any requests for a restore session.
Keep progress notes / TTD lists if it is that important.
YMMV I just use Sigil to do touchup

[User_Z]

I understand.
Thanks for answers.

I think that saving your state before exiting, and subsequently restoring it at startup is the ability of the editor and not the operating system.

Sigil is written in Qt, and there are appropriate mechanisms for implementing this feature. For example, using the QSettings class.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by User_Z

I think that saving your state before exiting, and subsequently restoring it at startup is the ability of the editor and not the operating system.

Sigil is written in Qt, and there are appropriate mechanisms for implementing this feature. For example, using the QSettings class.

Notepad++ allows you to close Notepad++ without being prompted to save unsaved files since it's text files are automatically backed up while Sigil prompts you to save before closing. Personally, I prefer Sigil's mechanism since it is entirely possible that I will open the epub in another program or send a copy back to the author for comment before—possibly—returning to Sigil to continue editing. It's a rather rare action for me to open the same epub twice in a row.

I currently have 17 text files open in Notepad++ for a total of 67KB. By contrast, the last epub I opened in Sigil was 49MB in it's zip container and contained 497 files and the epub I am currently working on close to 300MB but a large part of that size is due to the number of images. The time to save those 17 text files is rather short compared to the time required to stuff 332MB of files into a .zip container and repeating that action every time I make a change in any file.

[DiapDealer]

First off: Kevin's right. Session saving is not something Sigil's ever going to do under our watch. Pretending text editors doing it is even remotely comparable will not change that. Nor will throwing out words like QSettings and believing it's some magic switch (that could be used to save the session in a couple of lines of code) help to accomplish what you want. Sigil uses QSettings. It's not a lack of knowledge that is keeping us from doing what you want.

There's no such thing as a "broken" text file. Text editors don't need to verify that markup is sane before autosaving. Text editors don't need to make sure that the text in an opf file is spec compliant and machine parseable. In short... text editors don't need to worry whether or not text files will "function" properly when saved and restored. Because text editors only need to worry about opening files, displaying them, and letting users change them. Text editors rarely parse the markup in text files. Sigil doesn't have that luxury. In fact in a lot of cases; an auto-save (or session-restore) feature in Sigil would do more harm then good.

It's not happening. The End.

[KevinH]

Well said!