Open with an external editor

[philja]

My attention was caught by Odamizu's post about a problem with external editors on Mac (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...57&postcount=4), and I thought I'd see how it works in Linux.

I never use an external editor in Sigil, but last year I did install PageEdit and gave it a whirl to see how it went. I didn't persist with it, but during testing, I did register it in Preferences > General > set your preferred external xhtml editor.

So in Sigil 2.8.0 I quickly checked, and PageEdit was still listed in the Preferences, so I right-clicked on a file in the Browser and selected 'Open With...'

I was surprised to receive a system-generated list of possible applications in /.local/share/applications/. There was no offer of the designated preference, namely PageEdit. Of course, once located and selected, subsequent right-clicks of 'Open With...' did list PageEdit.

I know the External Editor ToolBar icon launches PageEdit ok but I would have thought that a right-click in the Browser would, in the first instance, also link to the preferred external editor, if one had been designated in the Preferences.

Is this something that should be considered?

[KevinH]

These are "different" open with tools. The Preferred XHtml Editor is dedicated primarily to PageEdit but others can be placed there but it meant for the potential to edit multiple xhtml files in an epub by passing the address of the opf.

The standard BookBrowser pop-up menu "Open With" is meant for any single file editor. It exists by file type, so you can specify many different external editors specific to each file type.

PageEdit is not really placed there for xhtml files as it is more useful when launched via the preferred xhtml editor manner as it groks the OPF.

So right clicking on an xhtml in BookBrowser will not offer PageEdit, but instead a single file editor for the xhtml file type.

So different mechanisms.

The issues with regular "open with" only happen on Mac, not Linux because some Mac Apps have Multiple Main Window capabilities and can not be launched multiple times, and will not close when the last window is closed by the "x" in the title bar and must be Quit out of.

Linux does not use the multiple Main Window paradigm and so auto quits when the last window is closed and multiple instances of any program can be run.

[philja]

I can see that the Mac's operation will be different, and I can understand that these are two different 'open with' mechanisms. However ....

Looking at Sigil from new users' viewpoints, I'm afraid they will also be surprised that a right-click on an xhtml file in the Browser doesn't immediately offer the tool they took trouble to specify in Preferences, especially if they have a limited set of Toolbars visible to reduce clutter.

Not a major worry for me.

[KevinH]

And that is because PageEdit was meant to replace the old old BookView, so the interface was designed to support that transition. That is not something we are going to change. All a new user needs to know is that they are different mechanisms and launched in different ways,

I hope that is well-explained in the Sigil User guide, but if not, we can try to fix that. i was really hoping for more volunteers to update the Sigil user guide but ...

[DiapDealer]

The current methodology has been in place for quite some time. This is the first instance (here or on github) I can recall that anyone was confused on the matter. PageEdit is special cased. It always has been. As far as new and casual Sigil users go, those using PageEdit via the External Xhtml Editor Launch button for WYSIWYG editing are unlikely to be utilizing the more technical right-click Open-With feature to launch various editors (based on media type) for the external editing of individual files, in my opinion.

[philja]

I'm sorry I mentioned PageEdit. This seems to have a special place in your thinking, Kevin and DiapDealer. I know that there was a lot of debate when BookView was removed and PageEdit introduced.

I only mentioned PageEdit because someone suggested last year that I try it and at the time I listed it in the Preferences. I never removed it. I don't have a use for an external editor and forgot it was still there.

Would your considerations be the same if I had talked about a more powerful/versatile editor like Bluefish, which I frequently use but not with Sigil?

Bluefish could equally fit into the two different editing mechanisms fulfilled by the Preferences item and the more specialised drop-down 'Edit With..' in the Browser.

Then it would seem logical and coherent to link the Preferences selection into the first item in the drop-down list. Users could still select other specialised editors for images and whatever.

[KevinH]

Yes, that does not change anything. You can launch Bluefish (or any editor) with normal "open with" just as easily using BookBrowser's pop-up. As I said, two different mechanisms.

We added PageEdit to replace BookView because in-browser editing (no matter the app used) can create absolutely horrible code. By making a separate app, we tried to limits its use to basic proofreading and typo fixes. And also force the user to look at the actual code generated in CodeView after editing with PageEdit was done. We designed it to be launched by a single click to emulate the old BookView on purpose.

Generally Sigil rarely wants to break long-standing patterns that developers use in Sigil. So we did our best with the BookView to PageEdit transition. We will continue in the way in the future.

[DiapDealer]

I see the logic, but it could also cause confusion in the reverse. The Open With feature is entirely separate from the the xhtml editor launcher. If one removed the last instance of PageEdit from the Open With config, might they not be confused when the xhtml launcher button consequently fails to work? Or would we have to make sure configuration only flowed in one direction?

I think it's best to keep them separate. As Kevin mentioned, the preferred external xhtml editor is intended for apps/scripts that can parse the opf file so that all of the xhtml files are available to be edited in that session. PageEdit is even special-cased so that the current file open in Sigil will be the one that has focus in PageEdit.

I see no advantage in mixing the configs of two different features. *shrug*

[icearch]

Speaking of Pageedit, could devs add table editing functions? Or can you recommend some WYSIWYG editors that can do tables?